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Strategic approaches of corporate codes of ethics in Australia: a framework for classification and empirical illustration	[ "Business ethics", "Classification", "Australia" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Corporate codes of ethics are one of several influences on business ethics within and across cultures. In a model that goes beyond philosophically-based ethics, Stajkovic and Luthans (1997) use social-cognitive theory as a springboard to identify factors influencing business ethics standards and conduct. They propose that a person's perception of ethical standards and subsequent conduct is influenced by institutional factors (e.g. ethics legislation), personal factors (e.g. moral development), and organizational factors (e.g. code of ethics). Within the cultural context, these key antecedent factors interact to influence ethical standards (Stajkovic and Luthans, 1997). Generally, the focus of this paper is limited to the content of code of ethics.Research has so far not approached the contents of codes of ethics from a strategic point of view. For example, research has not considered the classification in terms of standardization, replication, individualization and customization of the meaning of corporate codes of ethics within and across contextual business environments. Therefore, the objective of this initial research effort is to introduce and describe a generic framework of classification to provide insights into the diverse strategic approaches of corporate codes of ethics content within and across contextual business environments. The current study uses corporate codes of ethics collected from Australian corporations as empirical illustrations (i.e. a selection of sample extracts).\nFrame of reference - corporate codes of ethics: Langlois and Schlegelmilch (1990) define a corporate code of ethics as a statement setting down corporate principles, ethics, rules of conduct, codes of practice or company philosophy concerning responsibility to employees, shareholders, consumers, the environment, or any other aspects of society external to the company. These documents vary in length, breadth of topics covered and the extent to which topics are covered.Berenbeim (2000) cites three trends as evidence of the growing importance of corporate codes of ethics: the globalization of markets and the need for core principles that are universally applicable; the acceptance of these codes as part of the corporate governance of the company as illustrated by increased participation of boards in their development; and the improved ethical literacy of senior managers as illustrated by the increasing sophistication of the codes.In previous research, the contents of corporate codes of ethics have been analyzed according to scales derived from Cressey and Moore (1983), Mathews (1987), Lefebvre and Singh (1992), Wood (2000) and Svensson and Wood (2004). Cressey and Moore (1983) examined the codes of ethics of 119 US corporations against a number of criteria:\nFramework of classification - strategic approaches: The framework of classification used in the current study differs from the previous ones by Cressey and Moore (1983), Lefebvre and Singh (1992), Wood (2000), Svensson and Wood (2004) and Singh et al. (2005). These research efforts focus on the content of codes of ethics. The research at hand focuses on the contextual consideration of code prescription and the intensity of codification in the content of codes of ethics in companies operating in the Australian private sector.The content of corporate codes of ethics is surrounded by the corporation's business operations and their different contextual business environments. The contexts surrounding the codes of ethics are highly dynamic, therefore, it is important to be aware that corporate codes of ethics should be regarded as dynamic artifacts, instead of static ones. Cressey and Moore (1983), Lefebvre and Singh (1992), Wood (2000) and Singh et al. (2005) have studied the static content of codes, whereas this study provides an initial and important insight into the dynamic features of corporate codes of ethics.The content of corporate codes of ethics should evolve and adapt as contextual changes occur in business operations of a corporation's business environments. The content refers to the code prescription and the intensity of codification used in codes of ethics, while the context refers to the business environment for which the code of ethics has been developed. There are a number of potential strategic approaches to corporate codes of ethics. The code of ethics content, in conjunction with the reigning code of ethics context, provides a fundament to distinguish a set of strategic approaches of corporate codes of ethics. They may be derived from two principal dimensions, namely the application of content and the context of application. The dynamic features inherent and derived from these two dimensions (i.e. meaning of content and context) in corporate codes of ethics may be divided into a selection of strategic approaches (see Table I), all of which apply to both the corporation's ethical values and principles used in business conduct.On the one hand, the context application dimension may be divided into two sub-categories: within the same and across different contextual business environments. On the other hand, the content dimension may also be divided into two sub-categories: uniform and flexible meaning and interpretation to the code of ethics content. Four generic strategic approaches of corporate codes of ethics may be distinguished based upon these four sub-categories:\nMethodology: The purpose of this study was to examine the dynamic features of the content of the codes and to examine, according to a specific method, the contents of corporate codes of ethics in Australia. This research reports on the diverse strategic approaches and summarizes the issues addressed in the introduced framework of classification in the codes of ethics of the top 500 corporations in Australia.A survey document of 19 pages was sent to the public relations managers of the top 500 Australian companies (based on revenue) operating in the private sector (Shoebridge, 2000). Companies were asked to answer the set of questions in the survey and to supply a copy of their code of ethics. The 479 packages delivered elicited 173 responses, with 49 companies indicating various reasons for not participating in the study, 30 indicating that they did not have a code, 81 indicating that they did have a code (65 sent codes and questionnaires) and another 13 companies who declined to fill in the questionnaire, but who provided their code. The useable response rate was therefore 25.9 percent. This paper reports on those 78 companies that possessed and sent their codes of ethics for examination by the researchers.\nEmpirical findings: Previously, it was argued that the meaning of the content of corporate codes of ethics may benefit from being flexible and adaptable as contextual changes occur in the business operations and various business environments of corporations. Different strategic approaches to the content of corporate codes of ethics may be identified (see Table I). The code of ethics content, in conjunction with the reigning code of ethics context, provides a fundament to distinguish these strategic approaches. In the list below a selection of sample extracts illustrates the diverse strategic approaches identified in the examined code of ethics contents in the top corporations of Australia:1. Standardized strategic approach:\nConcluding thoughts and suggestion for further research: The corporate codes of ethics in Australia studied may, be categorized into standardized and replicated strategic approaches. It is a rather unexpected finding that the contents of the analyzed corporate codes of ethics predominantly rely on standardization and replication considering the fact that there are a set of other strategic approaches of corporate codes of ethics available (see Table I). Many of the studied corporations run international or worldwide business operations that have to confront different contextual business environments. It would have been reasonable to expect a larger part of the content of each code to have relied on a flexible meaning within and across business environments. It would also have been expected to observe more explicit or pronounced adaptations in the corporate codes of ethics content in the same way as other business operations are adapted to each specific marketplace and surrounding society. Apparently, the operational and tactical levels of the studied corporations' business operations have not influenced the strategic level of current corporate codes of ethics artifacts. Further case studies of best/good practice in terms of customized and individualized strategic approaches of corporate codes of ethics content would make a fruitful contribution to current knowledge in the field.It is important to remember that a code of ethics is not a rulebook that addresses every ethical issue that might arise. It is neither a summary of all laws and policies that apply, nor is it a contract. Furthermore, it does not replace good judgment, but gives guidance and direction to staff members to assist making the right decisions. Nevertheless, the ways that the content of the corporate codes of ethics are expressed may foreshadow, to a larger or lesser extent, flexible meanings of application rather than uniform ones.When the corporate uncertainty avoidance increases, then as a consequence, the degree of code prescription and the intensity of codification may also increase (Singh et al., 2005). These parameters reflect the corporate propensity to uncertainty avoidance in corporate codes of ethics in different national cultures. The meaning of the content of these codes should therefore be seen as dynamic, not static, reflecting the need for uncertainty avoidance. The contents of corporate code of ethics may also be interpreted as reflecting an inherent flexibility or inflexibility of meaning towards employees in the corporations' various business operations and different cultural business environments. On the one hand, the code of ethics may contain a high degree of code prescription and codification intensity (i.e. less flexibility of the meaning of the code of ethics content). On the other hand, the code of ethics may contain a low degree of prescription and codification intensity (i.e. more flexibility of the meaning of the code of ethics content). These combinations define the corporation's strategic approach of flexibility and uniformity in the actual meaning of code content towards employees, customers, suppliers and/or other stakeholders.The need to avoid uncertainty in the marketplace and surrounding society implies a potential inappropriateness of homogenous corporate codes of ethics contents across national and cultural business environments. It also indicates the importance of a flexible meaning and interpretation of the corporate codes of ethics content for multinational corporations in their international and cross-cultural business operations. The diverse national and cultural contexts that corporations encounter in the marketplace and the surrounding society should be taken into consideration in determining the meaning and interpretation of corporate codes of ethics content. Otherwise, these corporate codes of ethics may be seen to be meaningless and may not foster corporate ethical values and principles on the tactical and operational levels. The code may be seen as window dressing on a strategic level, disconnected from the reality of the corporation's business operations and different business environments. All in all, this research has triggered and advanced the search for strategic approaches in corporate codes of ethics content, which complements previous research efforts in the field.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Research has so far not approached the contents of corporate code of ethics from a strategic classification point of view. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to introduce and describe a framework of classification and empirical illustration to provide insights into the strategic approaches of corporate code of ethics content within and across contextual business environments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper summarizes the content analysis of code prescription and the intensity of codification in the contents of 78 corporate codes of ethics in Australia.\nFindings: - The paper finds that, generally, the studied corporate codes of ethics in Australia are of standardized and replicated strategic approaches. In particular, customized and individualized strategic approaches are far from penetrating the ethos of corporate codes of ethics content.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research is limited to Australian codes of ethics. Suggestions for further research are provided in terms of the search for best practice of customized and individualized corporate codes of ethics content across countries.\nPractical implications: - The framework contributes to an identification of four strategic approaches of corporate codes of ethics content, namely standardized, replicated, individualized and customized.\nOriginality/value: - The principal contribution of this paper is a generic framework to identify strategic approaches of corporate codes of ethics content. The framework is derived from two generic dimensions: the context of application and the application of content. The timing of application is also a crucial generic dimension to the success or failure of codes of ethics content. Empirical illustrations based upon corporate codes of ethics in Australia's top companies underpin the topic explored.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Adopting a specific innovation type versus composition of different innovation types: Case study of a Ghanaian bank	[ "Innovation", "Business performance", "Market share", "Banks", "Case studies", "Ghana", "Competitive strategy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the banking sector, as in many service sectors, the lines dividing competing firms are becoming increasingly indistinct, particularly with respect to the products/services. It is, therefore, extremely difficult for firms to acquire differentiation advantage on the basis of their products/services since competitors can easily imitate. Increasingly, competitive advantage lies in the ability to provide strategic services that are tailored to the unique requirements of clients in a timely fashion (Berger and Dick, 2006; Barras, 1990; Damanpour and Gopalakrishnan, 2001).In the post-crisis era of the Global Financial Meltdown, banks in Ghana have performed better than expected; however, increased competition, growing customer demands, and new regulations are likely to continue to add complexity to business models of banks (Ghana Banking Survey, 2010, 2011). To this end, developing and planning effective innovative strategies to prosper in this context is a critical requirement. It is established that firms facing environmental volatility as a result of globalization, deregulation, new technologies, and e-commerce can enjoy superior performance through the development of organizational competencies, such as innovation (Damanpour, 1991; Han et al., 1998).It is posited that innovation should provide a means for banks to reduce costs, reduce risks, or provide an improved service that better satisfies the financial system stakeholders' demand. It represents an additional means by which banks can improve their market performance by recovering from palpable inefficiencies (Roberts and Amit, 2003), which may in turn contribute to competitive advantages in the business environment (Han et al., 1998; Gopalakrishnan, 2000; Dos Santos and Peffers, 1995; Abir and Chokri, 2010; Berger and Dick, 2006). Han et al. (1998) have established that banks can face environmental challenges and uncertainty through incorporating technical and managerial innovations in their organizational structure, which will help them to achieve superior performance. Despite the significant of innovation in the increasingly competitive business environment in which firms operate, much of the existing literature is centered on manufacturing companies (Oke, 2007; Walker, 2008). Innovation in service organizations has been discussed from a conceptual perspective with little empirical consideration (Oke, 2007; Damanpour et al., 2009).Subsequently, although several types of innovations are identified in the extant literature, researchers have not resolved conflicting theoretical predictions about the implication of adopting innovation types. Some theorists imply that focus on adopting a specific type of innovation would influence firm performance (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990). In contrast, others argue that focus on adopting a specific type of innovation will negatively affect organizational performance but that positive firm performance results from composition of effects of several types (Roberts and Amit, 2003). Consequently, a question of central importance remains unresolved: Are banks better-off by focusing on adopting a specific innovation type or by adopting composition of different innovation types?Following the conceptualization of Damanpour et al. (2009), this paper distinguishes between three innovation types (i.e. service, technological process and administrative process) and - based on an empirical case study of a large bank in Ghana - suggests whether banks should focus on adopting a specific innovation type or composition of different innovation types in order to optimize the returns to innovation. As to the results, the paper finds evidence in two different ways in which focus on adopting a specific innovation type seems to contribute more to performance than adopting bundles of different innovation types. Firstly, as the bank focuses on adopting only administrative process innovation it enjoyed higher growth in market share than when it adopts service innovation and technological process innovation in conjunction with administrative process innovation. Secondly, although administrative process innovation had the lowest score for innovation adoption by the bank, its impact on the bank's market share was found to be significantly greater than that of either technological process innovation or service innovation. In sum, the findings of this paper follow the theory on absorptive capacity and sustain that focus on adopting a specific innovation type still exerts significant positive impact on business performance.The rest of the paper is structured as follows. The next section presents information on the banking sector in Ghana. Relevant literature on innovation is reviewed focusing on types and consequences. Thereafter, the research methodology is described, the results are presented and discussed, implications are forwarded, and then limitations are highlighted.\nThe Ghanaian banking industry: A competitive banking system is required to ensure that banks are effective forces for financial intermediation channeling savings into investment fostering higher economic growth. There are about 26 banks operating in Ghana the majority of which are foreign-owned (Table I). There is a high degree of industry concentration - i.e. six banks hold 53 percent of industry deposits and assets - rendering the market structure in the Ghanaian banking system noncompetitive and possibly hampering financial intermediation (Buchs and Mathisen, 2005, p. 3). Banks continue to witness continuing growth in assets, liabilities, and incomes and that industry profitability ratios remain high in comparison with Sub-Saharan averages (Buchs and Mathisen, 2005; Acquah, 2006; Hinson et al., 2009). Buchs and Mathisen (2005, p. 21) attribute the \"seemingly high profitability of banks\" to persistently low level of market contestability. There are concerns about the inefficiencies of most Ghanaian banks, especially state-owned banks (Frimpong, 2010, p. 73). Again, many of these banks continue to report high non-performing assets on their balance sheet, which seem to prevent them from cutting their lending rates despite strong agitations within the business community (including the government) for banks to reduce their lending rates.The industry is, however, \"showing signs of becoming more competitive\" (Asante et al., 2011, p. 34) looking at recent developments, which include introduction of universal banking (this enables all banks to engage in commercial as well as merchant banking), entry of eight banks from the sub region and Asia, and capital injection by existing banks to meet minimum regulatory capital requirements (Ghana Banking Survey, 2011). The sector regulator, i.e. Bank of Ghana, has recently embarked on a number of measures aimed at minimizing risk exposures of, and enhancing efficiency and soundness of, banks. Some of these measures are: creating a credit reference bureau, introducing a cheque codeline clearing system, and raising the minimum capital base.The industry offers significant opportunities with the recent oil production (projected oil revenue for 2012 is about 1239.82 million Ghana cedies at US$90 per barrel), trends in global commodity prices (gold and cocoa prices are soaring in the international market), influx of foreign direct investments, growth in private sector activities within the local market, and huge presence of unbanked sector in the country (this accounts for almost 80 percent of the Ghanaian population). These are large untapped areas for banks to continue to raise funds from through deposits mobilization. So the question is \"what kind of strategies must bank pursue in order to cease these opportunities?\" Acquah (2006, p. 1) believes that innovation has become important for success in the industry. Indeed, it has been observed that banks are strengthening their risk management practice, increasing support for trade financing, and rationalizing and aligning staff cost to revenue (Ghana Banking Survey, 2011). Again, many banks have resorted to branch network expansion, transformation of customer segmentation, human capital development, and technology-driven strategies (e.g. collaborating with telecommunication companies to provide banking services through mobile phones), which they hope will help in achieving sustainable competitive advantages (Hinson et al., 2006; Ghana Banking Survey, 2011; Abor, 2005; Asante et al., 2011). There is also a wave of mergers in the banking industry on account of the mandatory recapitalization order by the Bank of Ghana. In particular, Bank of Africa has taken-over Amalgamated Bank, and Ecobank (expected to become the largest bank in Ghana in terms of assets and deposits) has just completed the take-over of The Trust Bank. There are still indications that some local banks will also merge given their eminent inability to meet the mandatory recapitalization. In short, these changes taking place in the Ghanaian banking industry make the industry a useful context for examining the impact of the adoption of innovation on bank performance.\nTheoretical framework: Innovation\nMethodology: For the purpose of obtaining data for the study, contacts were established with two bankers (both work with the same institution) enrolled on an Executive Master of Business Administration program at the University of Ghana Business School to provide the names of executives in their institution to serve as key informants. A list (name and e-mail address) of potential respondents was generated and a questionnaire (with instructions for completion) was delivered to each person on this list. Hence, data for this study came from managers of a large multinational bank in Ghana. In this section, the paper describes the research design, sampling procedure, data collection, variable construction (measures), and analysis techniques.Design\nResults: This section presents the results of the banks' innovation adoption and impact on business performance. The paper, first, introduces the profile of respondents.Respondents' profile\nConclusions: In this concluding remarks section, the paper discusses the implications of the above findings for innovation theory and practice. But before discussing these implications, it is important to draw readers' attention to the study's limitations as follows: firstly, while there are about 26 banks in Ghana, the results are based on the study of only one bank and for that matter generalizability of the results may be restricted. But, despite the somewhat limited sample size, this should not nullify the conclusions drawn given that the relevant preliminary tests associated with the adequacy of sample size proved favorable for the analysis to proceed. That said, future research should try to improve upon the generalizability of the results through, for instance, the survey of all the banks in Ghana, or within the West African sub-region.Secondly, the research constructs were measured using managers' perceptual data, which opens the results to the problems associated with response bias, as well as common method variance, in sampling. The logic for future research is to use objective measures, such as large scale secondary data sets. Furthermore, although the regression equations include an error term, the use of the least squares technique did not enabled the paper to account for this term. Measurement error can overestimate the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable (see Baron and Kenny, 1986). In future work, this limitation can be overcome through the use of - for example - structural equation modeling technique (see Hair et al., 1995).Implications for innovation theory\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Although several types of innovation are identified in the extant literature, researchers have not resolved conflicting theoretical predictions about the implication of adopting innovation types. Following the conceptualization of Damanpour et al., this paper aims to distinguish between three innovation types (i.e. services, technological process, and administrative process) and make suggestions for banks on whether to focus their innovation efforts on a specific type or composition of different types in order to optimize the returns to innovation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Based on an empirical case study of a large multinational bank in Ghana (name withheld for anonymity), data were collected with questionnaire instruments from 51 bank managers. Two regression equations were estimated and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).\nFindings: - The paper finds evidence that focus on adopting a specific innovation type seems to contribute more to performance than adopting bundles of different types of innovation. As the bank focuses on adopting only administrative process innovation it enjoys higher growth in market share than when it adopts services innovation and technological process innovation in conjunction with administrative process innovation.\nPractical implications: - It seems that even when resources are in abundance, and complementary changes or innovations are found to be necessary, there is less need to introduce different types of innovation with a more balanced rate simultaneously.\nOriginality/value: - The study proposes to resolve conflicting theoretical predictions and ongoing policy disputes about the effects on business performance (i.e. market share) of the adoption of a specific innovation type versus composition of different innovation types.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Gig-workers' motivation: thinking beyond carrots and sticks	[ "Motivation", "Job characteristics", "Human resource management", "Self-determination", "Virtual work", "Temporary workers", "Gig-work", "Gig-economy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Given evidence that high-quality employee motivation can contribute to an organization's long-term success by supporting employees' well-being and performance, several streams of research and theories have sought to enhance our understanding of employee motivation (Deci et al., 2017). While motivation is a relatively mature field of study, in recent years, the application of new information technologies (IT) to organizational design has led to a unique milieu that challenges our understanding of how organizations and managers motivate employees: the gig-economy.\n2. The gig-economy and digital labor platforms: 2.1 Boundary conditions\n3. SDT and digital labor platforms: The SDT is a broad framework for the study of human motivation and personality. According to the SDT, motivation can take two primary forms, both of which function differently: intrinsic motivation (i.e. doing something for its own sake - because it is interesting and a source of spontaneous satisfaction) and extrinsic motivation (i.e. doing something for instrumental reasons, such as tangible rewards and recognition) (Gagne and Deci, 2005). Although early interpretations of the SDT positioned intrinsic and extrinsic motivations as dichotomous and mutually exclusive, subsequent revisions to the theory have re-conceptualized them as lying on a continuum. In this view, individuals can simultaneously experience both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in doing their work (Gagne and Deci, 2005), a phenomenon that is apparent in the gig-economy as well. Specifically, while gig-workers are known to participate in the gig-economy for financial reasons (extrinsic motivation), gig-workers have also been cited as being intrinsically motivated by particular features of the job. For instance, North American Uber and Lyft drivers were found to participate on these platforms for the autonomy it affords one to control their own schedule and the opportunity it provides for social connection (Rosenblat and Hwang, 2016). Similarly, high-skill, on-demand workers cited the flexibility and convenience of such work, as well as opportunities for social interaction, and the validation such work provided of their knowledge and as an expert within their industry (Rockmann and Ballinger, 2017).\n4. Toward a theory of motivation in gig-workers: It is now time to further the theoretical development concerning gig-workers' motivation, based on the SDT, job-design research and ESM research. In its application within the workplace, the SDT considers the effect of various \"environmental factors (e.g. job design, pay contingencies, managerial styles) on workers' motivations and experiences [to be] largely mediated\" by the fulfillment or frustration of these basic needs (Deci et al., 2017, p. 22). Specifically, work climates that enable the satisfaction of these universal needs support intrinsic motivation, whereas conditions that thwart the satisfaction of these psychological needs undermine such motivation (Deci et al., 2017). Given this mediation effect, workplace contexts have commonly been described and assessed in terms of whether they support or thwart basic needs.\n5. Limitations and implications: Prior to discussing the scholarly and practical implications of this paper, two limitations must be addressed. First, beyond recognizing causality orientations, the proposed conceptual model does not consider other distinct characteristics of individuals such as personality and aspirations that are known to affect needs satisfaction and motivation (Deci et al., 2017). Second, for the sake of parsimony, this paper does not incorporate extrinsic motivation (beyond considering external rewards). Again, given recent interpretations of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations as independent factors (with unique antecedents/outcomes), future work exploring motivation within the gig-economy should consider the dynamics between these types of motivation.\n6. Conclusion: Accenture (a global consulting company specializing in technology) identified online labor platforms as a key trend that will drastically transform existing organizational forms and management models by 2022 (Jabagi et al., 2018). From a scholarly viewpoint, the arrival of digital labor platforms prompts unique questions about gig-worker/employer relations and presents many opportunities for behaviorally-oriented organizational researchers to build our scholarly understanding of the increasing number of people participating on these platforms (Kuhn and Maleki, 2017). Considering its theoretical importance, future inquiry into the phenomena of gig-work and motivation is essential to support both gig-workers and organizational managers. The authors hope that this paper may further promote and enable such research.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: High-quality employee motivation can contribute to an organization's long-term success by supporting employees' well-being and performance. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of research concerning how organizations motivate workers in non-traditional work contexts. In the algocratic context of the gig-economy, the purpose of this paper is to understand the role that technology can play in motivating workers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Drawing on the self-determination theory, job-characteristic theory and enterprise social media research, this conceptual paper explores how the architecture of the digital labor platforms underlying the gig-economy (and the characteristics of jobs mediated through these IT artifacts) can impact key antecedents of self-motivation.\nFindings: Combining theory and empirical evidence, this paper develops a mid-range theory demonstrating how organizations can support the self-motivation of gig-workers through the thoughtful design of their digital labor platforms and the integration of two social media tools (namely, social networking and social badging).\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper answers calls for psychologically-based research exploring the consequences of gig-work as well as research studying the impacts of advanced technologies in interaction with work contexts on motivation. In theorizing around a large set of social-contextual variables operating at different levels of analysis, this paper demonstrates that individual-level motivation can be influenced by both task-based and organizational-level factors, in addition to individual-level factors.\nOriginality/value: The proposed theory provides novel insight into how gig-organizations can leverage widely accessible social media technology to motivate platform workers in the absence of human supervision and support. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An empirical study of biological scientists' article sharing through ResearchGate: Examining attitudinal, normative, and control beliefs	[ "Structural equation modelling", "Theory of planned behaviour", "ResearchGate", "Institutional repository", "Article sharing", "Scholarly social media" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Previously, scientists have shared their research findings by publishing them in formal communication channels such as conferences, journals and book publications. Emerging information and communication technologies have enabled new scholarly communication methods of knowledge sharing through institutional repositories (IRs) and scholarly social media such as Academia.edu and ResearchGate (RG). IRs were introduced in early 2000 to collect, preserve and disseminate scholarly output such as theses, dissertations and pre-print articles produced at academic institutions (Lynch, 2003). For the last decade, a number of academic institutions have implemented IRs as a new scholarly communication channel to host and publicize their scientists' research outputs including data as well as articles (Kim, 2011; Abrizah et al., 2015). Also, scholarly social media, which is defined as enabling researchers/scientists to create their profiles and develop relationships among those researchers/scientists (Neal, 2012; Ward et al., 2015; Bruns, 2013; Sugimoto et al., 2017), such as ResearchGate and Academia.edu, has become popular as an important source of informal scholarly communication channel for scientists. Similar to IRs, scholarly social media allows scientists to upload and publicize their research articles, and furthermore, through scholarly social media, scientists can discuss their issues and findings in their research, find potential collaborators from different institutions and furthermore share their research data and source code with other scientists in the online community (Ovadia, 2014; Van Noorden, 2014).\n2. Literature review: There are a small number of studies investigating researchers' article sharing behaviors through scholarly social media such as ResearchGate. Prior studies of ResearchGate usually focused on its scholarly reputation mechanism (e.g. Jamali et al., 2015), the reliability of its scientific impact score (e.g. Yu et al., 2016; Hoffmann et al., 2016), comparison of its usage and publication statistics with exiting university ranking and citation statistics (e.g. Thelwall and Kousha, 2015, 2017), and copyright issues involved with researchers' uploading of pre-print articles (e.g. Jamali, 2017). Jamali et al. (2015) found that ResearchGate has been used as an emerging tool to build and showcase scholarly reputation from their survey with 251 European scholars. For this reason, Hammarfelt et al. (2016) pointed out the gamification aspect of ResearchGate by quantifying scholarly reputation with its own measurement mechanism of scholarly impact and productivity (i.e. RG score). Yu et al. (2016) assessed the credibility of the RG score by comparing it with other metrics such as research excellence framework and concluded that RG score is a reliable indicator for measuring the performance of an individual researcher. Hoffmann et al. (2016) examined the network centrality on the ResearchGate platform, and they argued that the network centrality on scholarly social media can complement the existing scientific impact assessment. In addition, Thelwall and Kousha (2015, 2017) evaluated its usage and publication statistics compared to other relevant statistics such as the rankings of academic institutions and Scopus citations, and they found that ResearchGate statistics moderately correlate with other statistics about academic institution rankings (Thelwall and Kousha, 2015) and Scopus citations (Thelwall and Kousha, 2017). Finally, with regard to copyright issues in researchers' uploading pre-print articles, journal publishers such as Wiley recently raised their concerns about copyright infringements by researchers' uploading copy-righted articles on ResearchGate and violating copyright agreements between publishers and authors (Wiley, 2017; Chawla, 2017). Jamali (2017) investigated the copyright compliance in researchers uploading their full-text journal articles on ResearchGate, and found that more than half of the articles uploaded by researchers on ResearchGate can potentially violate publishers' copyright agreements since the authors did not upload the pre-print version of the articles. For this reason, Megwalu (2015) and Citrome (2015) argued that researchers need to be more cautious about potential copyright violations by uploading the pre-print version on any scholarly social media if they are not allowed to upload the publisher's full-text article under copyright agreements.\n3. Theoretical framework: This research utilizes the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to gain a better understanding of factors that influence scientists' article sharing through ResearchGate. Since this study focuses on scientists' decision making to upload their articles into ResearchGate based on their individual motivations, the TPB can be a useful theoretical framework in understanding scientists' attitudinal, normative and control beliefs affecting their article sharing intentions. According to Fishbein and Ajzen (1975), a person's behavior is closely linked to his/her behavioral intention to conduct a particular behavior, and one's behavioral intention is determined by the effects of their attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control regarding the particular behavior. Attitude refers to the summary evaluation of a certain behavior; subjective norm refers to the expectations from one's community or close others about conducting the behavior; and finally, perceived behavioral control refers to self-efficacy and/or resource facilitating conditions which determine whether an individual conducts a behavior with ease or difficultly.\n4. Research model and hypotheses development: 4.1 Research model\n5. Research method: The proposed research model above provides an extensive map of scientists' article sharing through ResearchGate. This study empirically evaluated the scientists' article sharing model and related hypotheses with survey data collected.\n6. Data analysis and results: A structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was employed to assess the hypothesized relationships in the scientists' article sharing model. A component-based SEM based on partial least squares (PLS) was used over a covariance-based SEM because the purpose of this study is exploratory rather than confirmatory (Bontis et al., 2002). A PLS-SEM software, SmartPLS 2.0, was used for data analysis (Ringle et al., 2005), and the two-stage analysis approach was employed to assess both the measurement model and then the structural model consequently (Hair et al., 2006). A measurement model was assessed to investigate the reliability and validity of survey items for each construct, and then a structural model was evaluated to examine the hypothesized relationships among the constructs.\n7. Discussion: This research found that scientists' perceived relationship and reputation, and perceived risk in article sharing through ResearchGate, can significantly increase and decrease their attitudes toward article sharing, respectively. I also found that scientists' subjective norm and perceived academic culture of article sharing significantly contributes to their community norm of article sharing, which eventually increases their attitudes toward article sharing and article sharing intentions. Perceived ease of use was found to significantly increase both scientists' attitudes toward article sharing and article sharing intentions. Finally, I found that along with community norm of article sharing and perceived ease of use, scientists' attitudes toward article sharing significantly increase their article sharing intentions. In the following section, I further discuss the findings of this study along with the comments received from the survey participants in an open-ended question.\n8. Conclusion: This research examined the factors associated with biological scientists' article sharing through ResearchGate and identified important individual motivations affecting their article sharing intentions. I employed the TPB as the main theoretical framework, and the results confirmed that attitudinal beliefs (i.e. perceived relationship, reputation and risk), normative beliefs (i.e. subjective norm, perceived academic culture and community norm of article sharing) and control belief (i.e. perceived ease of use) all significantly contribute to scientists' article sharing intentions. The findings can be applied to not only increase article sharing through ResearchGate, but also to facilitate scientists' article sharing through IRs. This study suggests that in order to facilitate scientists' article sharing through digital platforms, it is important to help scientists to develop more positive attitudes toward article sharing by reducing their concerns in copyright infringement and emphasizing the benefits of article sharing such as potential future collaborative relationships and a positive increase in academic reputation through article sharing. In addition, it is critical to increase scientists' community norm of article sharing through providing relevant workshops and educational sessions, and to reduce any effort expectancies involved in article sharing by providing more systematic procedures of article sharing through any digital platform.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how attitudinal, normative and control beliefs influence scientists' article sharing through ResearchGate.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey method was employed to examine a research model of scientists' article sharing through ResearchGate. A total of 264 survey responses from biological scientists in the USA were used to evaluate the research model by using partial least square based structural equation modeling.\nFindings: The results showed that scientists' attitudinal beliefs (i.e. perceived relationship, reputation and risk), normative beliefs (i.e. subjective norm, perceived academic culture and community norm of article sharing) and control belief (i.e. perceived ease of use) all significantly affect their attitudes toward article sharing and article sharing intentions through ResearchGate.\nResearch limitations/implications: The theory of planned behavior (TPB) was used to develop the research model, and the specific research constructs from prior literature were incorporated in the model. The TPB and related research constructs nicely explained biological scientists' article sharing through ResearchGate.\nPractical implications: This study suggests that academic libraries can better promote their scientists' article sharing through digital platforms such as institutional repositories as well as scholarly social media. This can be achieved by emphasizing its benefits, including potential relationships or collaborations, positive academic reputation and community norms of article sharing, and by decreasing scientists' concerns about copyright infringements and effort expectancy involved in article sharing.\nOriginality/value: As one of the initial studies in scientists' article sharing through ResearchGate, this study provides a holistic picture of how attitudinal, normative and control beliefs all affect scientists' article sharing through ResearchGate.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Consumer over-indebtedness in the EU: measurement and characteristics	[ "Consumers", "Debt", "European Union" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The past two decades have seen widespread financial deregulation across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Over the same period, the behaviour of private consumption and saving in these countries has also changed significantly in several aspects. First, there was a marked acceleration in the growth rate of consumer expenditure around the beginning of the 1980s in a number of major industrial countries, led by the USA. Second, consumer borrowing has increasingly become a common source of finance for private households. Third, at the same time, the household saving ratio has fallen substantially[1].The continued increase in consumer borrowing in much of the European Union (EU) has caused an increasing concern among economic analysts and policy makers about the extent of consumer over-indebtedness. Many developed countries regularly collect and publish data related to consumer credit and indebtedness and there have been some limited specific attempts to examine the extent of over-indebtedness in several countries (e.g., Canada, Sweden and Finland). This paper aims to survey and evaluate existing approaches to measuring this problem and to propose a method that is both conceptually sound and practically feasible. Given the current state of the theoretical framework and the paucity of empirical data, this study adopts a subjective approach to quantifying and comparing the extent of consumer indebtedness and over-indebtedness in the EU member countries around the mid-1990s. Moreover, the study also aims to examine some characteristics of over-indebtedness across household groups classified by income, age and family structure. Although the dataset used for the empirical analysis is somewhat dated, the results of the current study nonetheless have some general implications for future studies on the nature, extent and possible determinants of consumer over-indebtedness.The paper is organised as follows. Section 2 provides a survey of existing approaches and indicators of consumer indebtedness. Section 3 lays out the conceptual framework for examining over-indebtedness. In this light, Section 4 evaluates the existing measures. Our proposed method is introduced in Section 5 and the implementation and empirical findings are discussed in Section 6. Section 7 concludes the paper.\n2. Existing approaches: Despite the increasing concern about consumer over-indebtedness, there has been hardly any concerted effort to study it systematically within individual countries or across countries. The current understanding of the problem is largely based on a wide range of ad hoc statistical indicators compiled by various public and private organisations. Such indicators are usually based on either the gross stock of household debt, net household liabilities, capacity to service and repay debt or sustainability of consumption behaviour. The following list is a summary of the main indicators of consumer indebtedness used by various organisations[2]:1. total stock of debt or debt per capita;2. proportion of households with net liabilities;3. consumption to income ratio;4. debt to income ratio;5. debt to asset ratio;6. number of bankruptcies/arrears;7. rate of credit delinquencies;8. average liabilities per bankruptcy; and9. number of households self-reporting to be over-indebted.The use of the stock of debt alone, either in aggregate or per capita terms, ignores the debtor's capacity to service and repay debt. Therefore, most indicators are devised on the basis of a comparison between the stock of debt and a measure of the capacity to repay, the latter commonly being taken to be the stock of household assets or the level of household current income. The above indicators are each consistent in principle with one or more of three models of measuring consumer over-indebtedness (Ferreira, 2000)[3]:1. An objective, quantitative model that defines over-indebtedness to be an unsustainable level of debt in terms of inability to service or repay the debt with reference to a defined critical level. Indicators (3) to (5) above typically fall into this category.2. A subjective model that classifies as being over-indebted all those who judge themselves to be unable to repay their debts without jeopardising their standard of living. Indicator (9) above is a typical example.3. An administrative model that records as over-indebted those cases of non-payments of debt that have been officially registered or declared before a court. Indicators consistent with this model include (6) and (7) above.There is currently no general agreement on the appropriate definition of consumer over-indebtedness, on how to measure it or on where to draw the line between normal and over-indebtedness. This situation results partly from the intrinsic conceptual difficulty and partly from the general lack of data on household income and particularly household assets. In the next section, we discuss the currently dominant conceptual framework for examining the consumption/saving behaviour that lays the foundation for our empirical analyses.\n3. Conceptual framework for examining indebtedness: 3.1. Nature of consumer indebtedness\n4. Evaluation of existing measures: We are now in a position to evaluate the existing indicators in the light of the above discussion of the nature of consumer indebtedness and over-indebtedness.4.1. Administrative/legal measures\n5. The proposed subjective approach: Current economic theory cannot provide any clear guidance on how an \"objective\" measure of consumer over-indebtedness can be constructed. Given the conceptual difficulty and the lack of data on household income and assets in practice, for the current study, we have to adopt a subjective approach to the measurement of consumer over-indebtedness. Nevertheless, our empirical work experimented with objective measures using household survey data sets for the EU. Because of the lack of robustness in the results, the \"objective\" approach had to be abandoned (see Betti et al., 2001, for a more detailed discussion of the \"objective\" approach). The remaining sections discuss details of the subjective approach and the empirical results.The main sources of micro-data available for the present study include the European Community Household Panel Survey (ECHP) and the (European) Household Budget Surveys (HBS). Details of the data sets and how differences in the two data sets are reconciled are discussed in Betti et al. (2001). In our study, we analyse the two data sets using an approach that aims at developing comparable \"subjective\" measures of indebtedness and over-indebtedness following the LC-PI line of enquiry. We define indebted households as those that have some consumer debt (e.g., consumer credit borrowing but excluding mortgages). Over-indebted households are identified as those that expressed difficulty or serious difficulty in making debt payments, including credit debt, mortgage payments and hire purchase instalments as recorded in household surveys. We consider that these households have weighed their debt level against their current income, liquid assets plus expected earnings and have decided that the debt service and repayment exceed what the households can pay without reducing their other expenditure below their normal minimum levels. In other words, the debt has become unsustainable. Although we cannot determine the accuracy of the survey information on an a priori basis, there does not appear to be a substantial group of people who attempt to hide debt-related difficulties from household surveys, particularly since the information required is largely qualitative. Moreover, our analyses can provide some guidance on the ex post assessment of the general quality of the information contained in household surveys, as we discuss in more detail in a later section.We derived estimates for the numbers and proportions of over-indebted households for those EU member countries for which sufficient data is available for the reference year, 1996. We also examined how subjective over-indebtedness is distributed across different household groups classified by various characteristics, such as income, age, and family structure. Our objective was to verify whether the structure of consumption and indebtedness shown in the data support the predictions of the LC-PI model and whether any discrepancy can be explained. If the LC-PI model is a good description of the data, we would expect to observe the following characteristics of consumption and indebtedness:* The proportion of indebted consumers declines with age.* There is no apparent link between income level and indebtedness after controlling for the age effect, as a rational consumer would consume at a level that is commensurate with his/her permanent income or lifetime resources whatever his/her current level of income is.* There is a \"U-shaped\" age profile of consumption/income ratio. Since the consumption stream is relatively stable but the income stream has a hump shape, the consumption to income (C/I) ratio will follow a \"U\" shape over the life cycle. In absolute terms, this ratio should be above unity at both the beginning and the end of the life cycle, reflecting the borrowing and dissaving that characterise these two stages of the life cycle.* Over-indebtedness cannot occur in the absence of unexpected shocks to or a myopic view of resources or consumption.In the real world, such characteristics will be complicated by departures from the LC-PI assumptions. The first complication arises from uncertainties in the economy and household circumstances. Hall's extended LC-PI theory does not support the belief that any age or income group is particularly susceptible to over-indebtedness arising from negative macroeconomic shocks or uncertainties regarding household circumstances. Thus, uncertainties in the economy or household circumstances per se should not cause a strong correlation between the proportion of households being over-indebted and the age or income level of the households. If the data reveal a strong correlation for a particular income or age group, then it is worth investigating the underlying factors more closely.Another complication is the existence of the liquidity constraint. Households with low and/or uncertain incomes often have limited access to credit or rapidly exhaust the credit that they have. Households in this situation are particularly vulnerable to negative shocks. It is expected that liquidity constraints lower the C/I ratios for the younger cohorts in particular as borrowing to finance consumption or asset acquisition makes up a greater proportion of younger age groups\" current resources. The U-shape of the profile of C/I ratios across age groups will therefore be flattened in the presence of a liquidity constraint.Perfectly myopic behaviour can mean one of two things: extreme risk aversion through absolute avoidance of debt or extreme risk taking by maximising current consumption through debt at the expense of both future consumption and the ability to resist negative shocks. High-risk myopic behaviour will lead to higher C/I ratios among young cohorts. In this situation, the C/I ratio then declines compared with other households in the same age group. Old-age cohorts will have lower stocks of assets and thus lower consumption and a lower C/I ratio. Thus, the U-shape of the age profile of the C/I ratios tends to be accentuated by the presence of high risk-taking myopic behaviour. Nevertheless, high-risk myopic behaviour does not necessarily imply over-indebtedness: it simply gives less weight to future consumption or risk. However, if it is the result of unrealistic expectations about the future, then these will probably fail to be realised and the consumer will become over-indebted. In contrast, risk-averse myopia will flatten the U-shape of the age profile of the C/I ratios in the same way as the \"liquidity constraint\": it is voluntary submission to this constraint.Having discussed the expected LC-PI characteristics of consumption and indebtedness, these are now used as the benchmark against which our empirical results are compared, interpreted and validated.\n6. Empirical results: Our empirical results cover the following aspects:* percentage of indebted and over-indebted households among total households;* distribution of indebted and over-indebted households by equivalised household income and age of head of household;* consumption/income ratios by income and age groups;* consumption/income ratios by age group with different household structure; and* over-indebtedness of one-adult households with children.6.1. Summary of indebtedness and over-indebtedness in the EU\n7. Conclusion: Having evaluated and experimented with a number of indicators of household over-indebtedness, we have adopted a subjective approach using information from EU household surveys. Our empirical results do seem to be broadly consistent with the LC-PI model predictions and our conceptual analysis. This lends support to both our assumption that households are generally honest in reporting their debt situations in household surveys and our subjective approach.Our empirical findings suggest that over-indebtedness was a significant problem across the EU countries in the mid-1990s, although the extent of over-indebtedness varied considerably. There is clear evidence to support the existence of a liquidity constraint, particularly in European countries where consumers have less access to credit market. In these countries, over-indebtedness seemed to be severer and more widespread than in countries with accessible consumer credit markets. Therefore, further financial liberalisation in these countries could potentially benefit a significant proportion of households, particularly young households that might be liquidity constrained.In general, over-indebtedness affects all age groups and all income groups. Low income cannot be used as evidence that over-indebtedness exists. In fact, in a number of countries, particularly those with wider access to consumer credit, it is the high-income, young-age groups that are more likely to be over-indebted. This evidence could suggest the existence of market imperfection in the consumer credit market, which warrants further investigation. It is worth noting that such groups of households are usually expected to have a greater capacity to service debt and their debt levels may be more sustainable compared with some other groups, e.g. low-income, old age households. Therefore over-indebtedness is not necessarily a good indicator of the extent of poverty in society. Nevertheless, over-indebtedness and poverty are inescapably linked. The over-indebted are very similar to the non-over-indebted in their income conditions but they consume a markedly smaller proportion of their income. As a result, over-indebtedness can be a factor, even a major factor, in creating and sustaining poverty, particularly among low-income, old age households and single-parent households with young children.In contrast, the under-indebted households are predominantly though not always from low-income groups. This group of households has a higher consumption/income ratio than other households and presumably constitutes a significant proportion of the \"hand-to-mouth\" type of households. We find that there are proportionately more of these households in countries where there is a lower level of consumer lending. One explanation of this group's apparent struggle to make ends meet is that many households in countries with restricted access to formal channels of consumer credit are severely constrained in their ability to borrow and to smooth out fluctuations in income and other adverse impacts. Households in this group, to the extent that they are creditworthy, could thus benefit from more accessible consumer credit.Finally, our empirical results tend to confirm the finding by other studies that single-adult households with children are particularly likely to be excluded from the credit market and, even if they do have access to consumer credit, are more likely to have difficulty in paying back the loans.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to measure and characterise the extent of consumer over-indebtedness among the European Union (EU) member states.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study evaluates alternative measures of over-indebtedness on the basis of the permanent-income/life-cycle theories of consumption behaviour and adopts a subjective approach in identifying over-indebted households on the basis of European household survey data. It then investigates the main characteristics of over-indebted households.\nFindings: - The empirical results reveal that over-indebtedness was a significant problem across EU member states in the mid-1990s. Moreover, an inverse relationship emerged between the extent of the over-indebtedness problem and the extent of consumer borrowing across EU countries.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Anecdotal evidence seemed to suggest that some main factors behind over-indebtedness could be \"market failure\" on the credit market, the existence of liquidity constraints and lack of access to formal credit markets. However, a comprehensive and rigorous investigation of the extent and determinants of over-indebtedness can only be achieved through analysis of more extended household data sets, particularly panel data.\nPractical implications: - The EU credit markets exhibited certain symptoms of \"market failure\", on the one hand, and there was also need for further financial liberalisation in the Southern European countries, on the other hand.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides a first systematic evaluation of existing measures of consumer over-indebtedness as well as the first EU-wide empirical investigation of the problem. It should provide valuable information to the credit industry as well as financial regulatory bodies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Managing and trading sovereign risk using credit derivatives and government markets	[ "Asset management", "Credit default swaps", "Government bond markets", "Sovereign risk" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The on-going sovereign debt crisis increased the need for proper sovereign risk monitoring. Using information from both sovereign credit default swap (CDS) and government bond markets enables asset managers and traders alike to get a better picture on the sovereign risk of an entity. The difference between CDS and government bond prices, called (CDS-bond) basis, should be close to zero in efficient markets. Thus, a significant non-zero basis indicates a situation in which one market demands a price premium, e.g. for liquidity reasons.\n2 Data and trading strategy setup: The trading strategies discussed in the following are based on the observation that CDS markets process information faster than bond markets, Palladini and Portes (2011). In situations with accelerating decline of an issuer's creditworthiness, this finding contributes to making the CDS market a fast and precise predictor of the future bond price. When observing a positive basis, i.e. CDS spreads being higher than bond spreads, prior to a bond's issue we should expect the new bond to exceed the current-issued bonds' yield of the same sovereign.\n3 Profitability of the trading strategy: When evaluating a trading or asset management strategy it is always crucial to obtain robust results. Our strategy's efficiency depends on the starting portfolio, i.e. with which bond to start the strategy. The portfolio's and thus the strategy's profit or loss (P&L) is a function of the yield of the bonds in the portfolio. To conduct a strict robustness analysis for the P&L, we consider two initial portfolio settings. The first approach starts with the lowest yielding sovereign bonds. While the revenue made from this bond is the lowest possible, the likelihood for a trading signal from the strategy is the highest. Conversely, starting with the highest yielding bond as initial portfolio holding reduces the likelihood of a strong trading signal but yields a higher ex ante return.\n4 Conclusion: In this paper we present an investment strategy for benefiting from a positive basis in the sovereign CDS and government bond market. We look at a sample of 13 major European countries and test whether the CDS-basis generates valid signals for managing a sovereign bond portfolio. We show that the strategy works and yields stable excess returns. Except for Finland, Ireland, Portugal and Sweden, the proposed strategy outperforms the benchmark. Testing the robustness of the strategy over time we find that the strategy yields stable outperformance with time varying country performance. To explain the economics behind the strategy we conduct a regression analysis with leading variables. A depreciating liquidity in the CDS market leads to a decrease in the performance of the strategy, indicating a high influence of the information processing power of the CDS market. Higher government expenses show the same effect on the strategy's performance.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The sovereign debt crisis in Europe increased the demand for asset manager worldwide to monitor and manage their sovereign risk. While using information from the credit derivatives and bond markets has been used widely in the corporate sector its usage for sovereign risk is novel. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The basis between a sovereign credit default swap (CDS) and the government bond contains valuable information for assets managers and traders alike. The paper demonstrates the use of the basis between the announcement date and the issue date of a new government bond to decide whether an investment in this bond is profitable.\nFindings: With this strategy, the authors are able to generate both over all excess returns with a European sovereign portfolio since 2008 as well as a constant outperformance of simple average euro government bond portfolios. The paper furthermore tests the economic rationale behind this trading strategy and confirms prior findings from the corporate market. CDS market liquidity is among the main driver and it follows that the CDS market is faster in anticipating risks than the bond market not only for corporate but also for sovereign entities.\nOriginality/value: The authors are the first to study the sovereign basis in a sound trading and asset management environment. The paper provides economic explanations and checks for the robustness of the results before the primary issuance of a new government bond.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A review of integrated applications of BIM and related technologies in whole building life cycle	[ "Building information modelling (BIM)", "Building life cycle", "Integration", "Technology application", "Tendencies and challenges" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the past 10 years, as a revolutionary technology, Building Information Modeling (BIM) has attracted more and more attention from researchers and practitioners in the field of architecture and engineering. According to the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), BIM is described as \"the digital representation of the physical and functional characteristics of the facility\" and is a shared knowledge resource that is used as a basis for decisions during its life cycle, it also defines the building life cycle as \"from the earliest concept existence to demolition.\"BIM is essentially a shared database that expresses the physical and functional information of a building project in a digital way, and embodies the management process of the life cycle. Goedert and Meadati (2008) described BIM as an ideal information center capable of retrieving and displaying necessary information in a format that meets the needs of managers. To support decisions throughout the life cycle, it must be updated to reflect the state of the building. The emergence of BIM promotes the integration and management of information throughout the building life cycle, thus to make full use of existing design data for the management (Yuan et al., 2019). Therefore, BIM enables the digital management of life cycle, and it can effectively improve schedule and efficiency, control cost, reduce risk of the project and so on.Since the concept of BIM application were first discussed in 1999 (Eastman et al., 2011), as a digital platform, more and more researchers to explore the effective applications of BIM in the building life cycle, such as logistics and supply chain management, process tracking, security management, facility management and energy transformation (Dixit et al., 2019; Ganbat et al., 2018; Liu et al., 2018; Ansah et al., 2019; Wu et al., 2017). With the popularization of service and resource-oriented concepts, more flexible applications across multiple gaps need to be supported. Scholars are trying to bring advanced emerging technologies and integrated applications of BIM into industrial practice.A large number of researchers have reviewed BIM through various research methods such as survey, critical literature review and interview. They conducted citation analysis of authors and journals, and outlined current practices and future directions. Among them, some scholars have summarized the application of BIM technology. For example, Li et al. (2018c) summarized the application of BIM in the pre-construction stage and the availability of data integration tools in subsequent geotechnical engineering activities. Ganbat et al. (2018) conducted the most advanced review on the application of BIM in international construction risk management, and proposed the framework of BIM international construction risk management. Ansah et al. (2019) summarized the overall sustainable design method comprehensively and systematically by combining the Green Building Assessment Program (GBAS) with BIM. Matarneh et al. (2019) reflected on the current status of BIM implementation in FM and identified research trends and patterns of information exchange and interoperability. At the same time, some scholars have summarized the technological innovation of BIM. For example, Lopez et al. (2016) determine the readiness and development of 4D BIM and compared and analyzed the technology of developing 4D model. Xue et al. (2018) has explored ways to improve the integration of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and BIM technologies. Tang et al. (2019) reviewed the emerging application fields and design patterns in dealing with BIM-IoT device integration. Wang et al. (2019) summarized BIM-GIS integration in sustainable building environment.Accordingly, although in the past few decades, BIM has been advocated because of its potential to support construction industry, it is important to but fewer literatures reviewed the whole life cycle of construction projects at various stages of BIM, and systematic integrations for the latest applications (Dixit et al., 2019; Lu et al., 2017; Li et al. 2018b, c; Wu et al., 2017). At the same time, fewer literatures established a framework of challenges and risks related to the use of BIM to provide recommendations for future industry. We're trying to bridge that gap with this work.Therefore, our research proposes the following three objectives: (1) more than 150 papers published in key journals from 2014 to June 2019 are reviewed, each phase of the building life cycle is taken as the dividing dimension, and different applications clearly in different stages are identified; (2) the current state-of-the-art interactive modes of BIM is displayed from two aspects of application and technology integration, the in-depth interaction between BIM and related technologies are explored; (3) establishing a BIM-based framework for future industrial development. It also analyzes the challenges faced by BIM application in order to provide theoretical reference for seeking opportunities and risk control in the future development.The chapters are arranged as follows: Section 2 describes the methods and classification criteria used; Section 3 describes bibliometric analysis results; Section 4 discusses the research results of applied classification and integration technology; S contains the industrial development trend of BIM application and the challenges faced by BIM application; the last section summarizes this review.\n2. Methodology: 2.1 Classification criteria\n3. Bibliometric results: 3.1 Data sources and contents\n4. Review on BIM technology applications research in the whole building life cycle: Each application in the life cycle matches different integration technologies, while each integration technology can play a role in different applications. In order to clarify the interactive relationship between BIM application and technology integration, in this section, we study BIM life cycle application and BIM technology integration from two perspectives, and establish a vertical integration reference framework of building life cycle technology. Based on this, we summarize the research results from two aspects by combining the generation, development and expansion process of BIM application, and obtain the evolution process of BIM application in the whole life cycle. 4.1 Summary of application research of BIM in each stage\n5. Tendencies and challenges for BIM applications in future industrial development: Globally speaking, the application of BIM has become the mainstream. The research on BIM in many countries takes a long time and has been systematic from the theoretical system to the implementation of projects. It is advocated to maximize the value of construction projects through operation stage (Ghaffarianhoseini et al., 2013; Zou et al., 2019b). In the current situation, there are deeper understandings and a more perfect framework was put forward to achieve theoretical innovation. Even interdisciplinary innovative research has gradually become one of the important trends (Li et al., 2019b). In addition, how to coordinate management and realize the collaborative application of BIM in each stage, and realize horizontal integration are the key to future research and applications (Lee et al., 2019b).From a macro perspective, the application of BIM on a single project should be a bottom-up process. However, from the perspective of industry development, the application of BIM involves the participants in all aspects of the project life cycle, and it has strong dynamics and poor continuity. Therefore the government dominant driving mode may be the most effective mode (Riemenschneider, 2018; Mansouri and Akhavian, 2018). From a micro perspective, because the actual effect of BIM application is difficult to measure and quantify, many experts are trying to propose new measurement methods for BIM application efficiency. At present, there is not yet a mature and unified method that is generally accepted by all to effectively demonstrate the true effect of BIM (Jin et al., 2018). It can be seen that the future trends and challenges of BIM applications are mainly concentrated in the three areas: applications in life cycle (management), innovation of technologies (technology) and transformation of industrial (promotion). In this section, we will review the inherent opportunities and advantages of BIM and summarize the future changes and challenges of the industry. 5.1 Tendencies for BIM applications\n6. Conclusions: With the continuous development of the construction industry, BIM is considered as one of the most suitable platforms for AEC due to its ability to solve various problems. The use of BIM and related technologies to promote the construction has attracted more and more attention. The research systematically reviewed 153 BIM related literatures, and the analysis of these literatures provided references for three viewpoints: applications of BIM, integration of technology, and future development and challenges.Specifically, the review analyzed the applicability of BIM in each stage, and determines 24 different applications in the life cycle. On this basis, to clarify the interactive relationship between BIM application and technology integration, we studied from two perspectives: the implementation of BIM applications, and integration of technologies. Through the study of the interaction between BIM technologies, we further constructed the evolution process of BIM application in the whole life cycle. Then, the future industry development framework based on BIM applications is systematically drawn, which represents the current situation and future trend, and the mapping method and knowledge are also a dynamic platform that can integrate future changes. Finally, we summarized the risks and challenges faced by the development of BIM application from the perspectives of management, technology and promotion. And it is confirmed that the majority of the challenges faced by the development of BIM in the construction industry major come from the two driving factors of promotion and management.All in all, this paper provides an important reference for the research on BIM or building life cycle. The proposed 24 applications of BIM in the building life cycle provide a systematic classification framework on the development of BIM. Similarly, this study also helps practitioners understand the current situation and challenges of the interactive use of BIM and other technologies, to develop various functions needed by the future industry.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to summarize the current applications of BIM, the integration of related technologies and the tendencies and challenges systematically.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using quantitative and qualitative bibliometric statistical methods, the current mode of interaction between BIM and other related technologies is summarized.\nFindings: This paper identified 24 different BIM applications in the life cycle. From two perspectives, the implementation status of BIM applications and integrated technologies are respectively studied. The future industry development framework is drawn comprehensively. We summarized the challenges of BIM applications from the perspectives of management, technology and promotion, and confirmed that most of the challenges come from the two driving factors of promotion and management.\nResearch limitations/implications: The technical challenges reviewed in this paper are from the collected literature we have extracted, which is only a part of the practical challenges and not comprehensive enough.\nPractical implications: We summarized the current mode of interactive use of BIM and sorted out the challenges faced by BIM applications to provide reference for the risks and challenges faced by the future industry.\nOriginality/value: There is little literature to integrate BIM applications and to establish BIM related challenges and risk frameworks. In this paper, we provide a review of the current implementation level of BIM and the risks and challenges of stakeholders through three aspects of management, technology and promotion.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Health delivery system for older adults in academic campus in India	[ "Public health", "Health policy", "Patient perspectives", "Qualitative research", "Public health regulations", "Population health", "Rural health", "Health service quality assurance", "Anthropology or sociology", "Health care commissioning" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: Recent demographic changes have led to serious transformations in health care needs of the community. Globally, 9.2 percent of the population was aged in 1990, whereas by 2050 the population of the aged is expected to be 21 percent. Presently, developing countries have two-thirds of the world's older population, which is expected to escalate to eight to tenth by 2050. In absolute terms, the global aged populace is expected to be 2bn in 2050 (United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, 2019). In this era of rapid upsurge in older population, developing adequate care structures for the older people is a major challenge. Hospitals and homes alone would be unable to bear the burden of their care. Therefore, it is becoming important to develop adequate alternative structures for their care in the new and emerging settings, including those which are not conventionally structured for their care, e.g. residential academic campuses.\nAging and family caregiving in India: The population of older people in India is projected to increase from 8 percent in 2015 to 19 percent in 2050 and is expected to be 35 percent by the end of this century (United Nations Population Fund, 2017). A series of studies point out that in India, older population are generally prone to cardiovascular illnesses, stroke, circulatory diseases, cancer, arthritis, hypertension, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, kidney problems, vision problems, diabetes, chronic bronchitis, rheumatism, digestive disorders, genito-urinary disorders, hearing impairment, anemia, skin disorders and dementia (Srinivas and Manjubhashini, 2014; Brijnath, 2011, 2014; Jha et al., 2006; Kant et al., 2004; Kumari, 2001). Older people generally suffer from chronic diseases that require long-term care. They also suffer from multiple morbidities, which increase their need for care. As life span lengthens, the intensity and duration of care that many people require as a result of debilitating chronic illness and frailty also increases. In other words, care of the older people never exclusively affects their experiences and lives alone but also that of their caregivers. In the Indian context, most of the caregiving is provided by family members. Older individuals tend to depend on filial piety and intergenerational support during their old age (Gupta and Pillai, 2002, 2012). Families meet the care needs of their older kin through co-residence. Most common type of living arrangement emerges to be older people living with their married sons and their families (Devi Prasad and Indira Rani, 2007; Ugargol et al., 2016). Patrilocality prevailing in the Indian context ensures that the wives undertake the responsibility of respectfully caring for their husband's co-residing older parents (Brijnath, 2014; Lamb, 2000). Family caregiving of older kin is considered to invite good karmas and blessings for the younger family members.\nAging and family caregiving in residential academic campuses in India: There are no known policies as well as studies on Indian academic campuses from the perspective of older care. The need for restructuring Indian residential campuses as suitable places for older people is increasingly felt because the Government of India has recently raised the age of superannuation of teaching staff from 65 years to 70 years in premier academic campuses/research institutes, which is expected to increase the older-younger ratio in these campuses. Accordingly, residential academic institutions are likely to house larger populations of older people. However, it is unclear whether they can meet their rising health care needs with existing resources.\nMethods: Information was obtained about older people who were more than 60 years of age and have been residing in the campus for at least the last five years. The older people in campus consisted of older teaching staff and older family members of both teaching and administrative staff. Data were gathered through face-to-face household survey followed by focus group discussion (hereafter FGD). The household survey was conducted between November 2014 and May 2015 to address the following research questions:\nLocale of the study: The study was conducted in a public residential academic campus of India. The campus is located in a district headquarter, and the nearest metro city is approximately 130 km away. It has an area of more than 2,000 acres, making it one of the largest residential campuses of India. The campus surroundings constitute basically a rural hinterland. Hence, the domestic and informal paid caregivers coming from the surrounding areas of the campus are mostly unskilled in nature. Inside the campus, several academic departments exist that have a potential of providing various inputs to health delivery system. About 22,000 inhabitants reside in the campus, including the dependents of the employees. The primary source of health care is a hospital, situated within the campus that provides basic health services, including emergency services round the clock. It provides equal access and services across class and caste. Due to a recent initiative of the Institute, a fleet of visiting specialist physicians are available on select days, but the giant share of specialized medical services is utilized by the younger population, especially the student community. Free consultations and medicines, inpatient and outpatient services and basic diagnostic services are provided to all campus residents and dependents of employees. However, specialized diagnostic services have to be obtained from either the district headquarters or the cities; the latter is preferred to the district services, which are believed to be of inferior quality. During emergencies, the campus hospital refers critically ill patients to higher referral centers with whom a partnership has been worked out.\nFindings: Overall, 14.67 percent (27) older people were found to be financially dependent on younger family members. Very few older people (both older staff and dependents) (0.04 percent) were covered by some kind of private health insurance. Among the rest, 0.05 percent (11) older people were not covered by any health insurance and 23 percent (43) were not aware about the health insurance system. The rest (77 percent) skipped the question on health insurance.\nMorbidity patterns, caregivers support sought for maintaining functional status and treatment choice: The Government of India listed the following top ten causes of mortality among older people in the year 2010: cardiovascular disease (24.9 percent), respiratory diseases (11.6 percent), diarrhoeal diseases (5.9 percent), fever of unknown origin (4.1 percent), malignant and other neoplasms (3.8 percent), unintentional injuries other than motor vehicle accidents (3.6 percent), respiratory infections (2.9 percent), diabetes (2.7 percent), digestive disease (2.4 percent), ill-defined/abnormal laboratory findings (29 percent) and all other remaining causes (9.1 percent). About 64 per thousand older persons in rural India and 55 per thousand in urban areas suffer from one or more disabilities (Jeyalakshmi et al., 2011). The findings of the present study also indicate a similar pattern of morbidity among the older campus residents. Table I details the disease profile of the older adults staying inside the campus, including older staff members. The most prevalent disease among older people staying inside the campus was hypertension (59 percent) followed by visual and hearing impairment (54 percent) and diabetes (47 percent). Other significant chronic diseases from which older people were suffering were arthritis (32 percent), gastro-intestinal disease (18 percent) cardiovascular disease (0.09 percent) and lung diseases (0.06 percent). A few older people also suffered from cancer.\nProblems with campus health services: Respondents were also asked about the kind of problem faced by them in accessing campus health facilities. Unavailability of physicians was found to be the biggest problem followed by absence of home visits, lack of specialist treatment and poor quality of medicine. In total, 58 households found that physicians were not available and 56 households complained about the absence of home visits. Specialist treatment inside the campus also was not satisfactory, as opined by a large number of respondents (55). A few (four) households complained of lack of alternative treatment. Table III highlights the responses regarding health services in the campus.\nHealth mobilization groups within the campus: alternative responses to health care: Among the wellness mobilization networks, a Yoga group, set up by a few staff members, is worth mentioning. An affinity group of non-teaching staff, apparently dissatisfied with the campus health system in particular and the biomedical approach to health in general, was found to have set up an alternative structure for preventive health. Many of the participants consisted of retired employees who lived near the campus and used the existing campus facilities - health center, shopping, recreational and other facilities.\nDiscussion: Large numbers of older people were found to reside in the campus, which is in sharp contrast to the popular notion that campuses only house younger population, which is similar to the findings of Bhattacharyya et al. (2019). Most of the older people in campus were financially independent but did not have private health insurance. The morbidity profile shown in Table I indicates the urgent need for introducing geriatric services in the campus hospital. Poor functional status of the older people as shown in Table II and unavailability of trained caregivers highlight an unmet need for older care. It shows the necessity for developing an overall structure for supporting older care in the campus. In the absence of such structures, the family caregivers play major caregiving roles and therefore their voices need to be heard. In spite of the large number of older population with physical/functional limitations the campus facilities were not found to be designed to meet the needs of the older people and their family caregivers.\nConclusion: In the light of existing morbidity patterns, the study shows the need for restructuring the health delivery system of the campus to cater to the needs of the older people and their family members residing within the campus. Campus health systems need to focus on improving staffing pattern, training of paid and family caregivers, devising separate physician schedules for older consultation and introducing home care and integrative treatment to meet the special needs of the older campus residents. The study also indicates the need to consider the plight of family members and devise programs for their support. Mere focus on medically oriented health services do not suffice for the older people, and there exists need for evolving wellness programmes for them.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Residential academic campuses generally support a skewed population profile that favours a younger population, mainly the student community, and thereby marginalize the needs of the older people staying within the campus. Health delivery systems are often not in accordance with the needs of staff members co-habiting with their aged parents and relatives as well as older staff members themselves. This poses a serious problem, especially in India, where filial piety is a norm and many employees cohabit with their parents. Moreover, the Government of India has reformulated its retirement policy under which the age for superannuation of teaching staff has been enhanced. This in turn, has raised the older-younger ratio in campuses in recent years. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To address these issues, a household survey was carried out on older people staying in a residential academic campus of India followed by a focus group discussion with family caregivers of the older people.\nFindings: It was found that older people were a marginalized group in campus, as health delivery system and allied facilities were not consistent with their needs. As a result, they and their family caregivers faced various challenges.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study exploring the possibility of academic campuses in India to emerge as alternate sites for supporting older care.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Softening the hierarchy: the role of student agency in building learning organisations	[ "Professional learning", "Student agency", "Learning communities", "Learning organizations", "Dialogue" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There is growing evidence that students can be powerful agents and catalysts for change in school improvement (Beltramo, 2018; Fullan, 2013; Fielding, 2011; Mullis, 2011; Roberts and Nash, 2009; Cook-Sather, 2002). Recent literature suggests that when schools function as learning organisations (LOs), students will succeed (Senge et al., 2012; Giles and Hargreaves, 2006). Despite the criticism of student voice initiatives as tokenistic additions to school improvement plans or fleeting reactions to school inspections (Bahou, 2012; Black, 2011; Lundy, 2007), there is merit in expanding on this field.\nBackground literature: Theorising the LO\nDesign and method: Research context\nFindings: The key themes emerging from the data reveal teacher and student perceptions of what happened when the SLC model was introduced in the case study school (RQ1) and the proposed links to Senge's (2006) disciplines for creating the conditions required for an LO (RQ2). The findings for both RQ1 and RQ2 are summarised in Table I.\nDiscussion and conclusions: The study sought to investigate the perceptions of those involved in an SLC model, which saw the SLC lead the planning and facilitation of a lesson, or observe a teacher-led lesson, followed by engagement in dialogue with the teacher (RQ1). It found that teachers and students perceived their involvement in the SLC as enabling a space where authentic and relevant teaching and learning ideas could be discussed in a manner where both students and teachers could renegotiate their roles and develop confidence in contributing to their school. Teachers, and particularly students, saw the value of engaging in dialogue around learning, even if this meant discussing differing perspectives, and it was these exchanges that could provide a more effective framework for developing teaching and learning practices within schools.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of student agency in building learning organisations (LOs) based on a case study of a student learning community (SLC) model that incorporates learning-centred dialogue between students and teachers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The case study adopted a multi-phase design involving multiple perspectives. Data were collected using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews following student and teacher involvement in two classroom events and subsequent dialogic encounters.\nFindings: Key insights emerged demonstrating the value of the SLC model in creating conditions that support LOs by enabling pedagogical spaces where students and teachers learn together, as well as the need for this model to encompass marginal voices and negotiate alternative approaches to accountability.\nResearch limitations/implications: This small-scale case study was based on a purposive sample of 10 teachers and 14 students from a single school setting in England. Therefore, there are limitations in generalising results to other contexts. Furthermore, the use of self-report measures to examine this case limits analysis of the case study conditions.\nPractical implications: The investigation provides insight into the implementation of this model through a consideration of teacher-student relationships, guidelines for dialogic encounters, training in student-led lessons and observations, as well as factors concerning the inclusivity and authenticity of this approach.\nOriginality/value: Growing interest in student agency emphasises the importance of further investigation into initiatives aiming to develop meaningful student involvement. This paper provides new perspectives on the insights generated by the SLC model in order to support the development of student agency models in other schools.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Ethics and spirituality in the workplace: The growing role of the business case in reforms	[ "Employment", "Employee attitudes", "Ethics", "Employment legislation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Fixed Graphic\nSpirituality and religion in the workplace: Individuals variously experience the \"meaningfulness\" of work, interpreting their working lives against ethically infused expectations.\nDiversity in the workplace: surviving or thriving?: The desire to be yourself, while also fitting in, may be experienced as a site of tension by those whose values or identities are not recognized in their organizations. Research into the experiences of black and minority ethnic people at middle and senior levels of management indicates that organizations are often blind to practices of discrimination - whether on the grounds of race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability or sexuality. This makes acknowledging such experiences increasingly difficult and some, therefore, adopt various coping strategies, including the adoption of multiple identities.\nThe ethics of employment deregulation: Recent broad trends in UK employment regulation refocus the emphasis in employment rights away from a primary concern with safeguarding collective rights toward a more differentiated approach privileging more individual concerns. Consequently, rights are defended on the basis of their ability to secure greater employee motivation and productivity. This is a business-case defense rather than a requirement for social justice.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Draws attention to recent broad trends in UK employment regulation that refocus the emphasis in employment rights away from a primary concern with safeguarding collective rights toward a more differentiated approach privileging more individual concerns.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Seeks to explain the reasons and consequences of this development.\nFindings: Argues that rights are defended on the basis of their ability to secure greater employee motivation and productivity.\nPractical implications: Explains that this is a business-case defense rather than a requirement for social justice.\nSocial implications: Advances the view that modern Conservatives see society as made up of a broad range of actors and not reducible to state action.\nOriginality/value: Claims that the extension of the minimum period of employment required before an employer may be taken to tribunal to two years, together with a greatly increased fee required to bring a case, mean that cases are much more difficult to make.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
IT practices within maintenance from a systems perspective: Study of IT utilisation within firms in Sweden	[ "IT practices", "IT utilisation", "Socio‐technical systems approach", "Maintenance management", "Computerised maintenance management", "E‐maintenance", "Information technology", "Maintenance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Maintenance is defined as the combination of all technical, administrative and managerial actions during the life cycle of an item intended to retain it in, or restore it to, a state in which it can perform the required function. Maintenance management is regarded as all activities of the management such as maintenance planning, maintenance control and supervision, improvement of methods in the organisation including economical aspects, SIS (2001). Information technology (IT) systems for maintenance management, hereafter denoted as maintenance management IT (MMIT), have existed for several decades. The demands on MMIT has shifted from being a tool to automate corrective and preventive maintenance management, such as task scheduling, plant inventory and stock control, to become support for predictive and proactive-predictive maintenance by providing real time data processing, effective communication channels and business function integration, Pintelon et al. (1999). Emerging technologies such as web services and open source software are also rapidly adopted in MMIT solutions based on new business logics such as service oriented architecture (SOA) and Software as a Service (SaaS). These solutions, commonly referred to as e-Maintenance, spans from traditional maintenance management software capabilities enabled through the web to advanced expert systems for diagnostics and prediction of future component state. But is industry ready to adopt the novel solutions?For answering this question, we need to apply a holistic perspective on IT utilisation. IT is technology, but without people using it and a clearly formulated purpose of the use, the technology utilisation as such will fail. Moreover, technology must be managed, maintained and connected to the corporate strategy. A systems approach applied to IT will ensure that the most relevant aspects are captured when studying IT utilisation. Several studies of IT utilisation in maintenance have been performed with the limitation of focusing on one single aspect, such as new applications development in Fernandez et al. (2003), Lee et al. (2006), Muller et al. (2008b) and Al-Najjar (2010) or the impact of IT in Mjema and Mweta (2003), O'Donoghue and Prendergast (2004) and White (2004). Some studies include IT support as one factor when studying overall maintenance practices, see, e.g. Jonsson (2000) or Buys and Nkado (2006). Other studies, such as in Jones and Collis (1996), Swanson (1997) and O'Hanlon (2008), account for utilised IT support and the level of computerisation.The purpose of the paper is to describe current IT practices within maintenance in Swedish firms from a holistic systems perspective. This will help us to understand the utilisation of IT within maintenance today, the possible challenges in applying new technology, and to find the opportunities that the current practices bring. The paper disposition is as follows: the next section describes IT practices from a holistic systems perspective. The holistic approach is applied in a study regarding MMIT utilisation presented in Sections 3 and 4. The results are summarised and discussed in section five and conclusions are drawn in the last section.\n2 IT practices - a socio-technical systems perspective: It is easy to perceive IT as merely technology, but the technical perspective is only one of several perspectives to apply to be able to reach true utility of IT. The goals and purposes of applying IT, the intended use, as well as the characteristics of the users are examples of additional factors to be addressed, Kans (2008). In the following, IT utilisation will be explained from a socio-technical perspective.2.1 IT systems from a socio-technical systems perspective\n3 Study presentation: In 2008-2009 a survey regarding MMIT utilisation in Swedish firms was conducted. The survey consisted of a web-based questionnaire and additional interviews for describing three perspectives of IT utilisation: functionality gaps, IT procurement, and overall IT practises. This paper reports on the last perspective.3.1 Questionnaire study design\n4 Maintenance it practices: This section accounts for findings from the survey following the socio-technical model described in Section 2. The technology used covers the technical system, technology procurement and governance covers the socio-technical system, and technology impact covers the social system.4.1 Technology used\n5 Results and results discussion: The main part of the participants of this study represents organisations that traditionally would be characterised as mature regarding IT use. They are established plants mainly from process industry in the range from medium to large sized businesses. We can also see that the main part represents a traditional maintenance organisation, where the focus is put on the execution of maintenance activities. Moreover, they perceive their business unit as contributing positively to the overall corporate goals.When we look at the IT practices, we find:* High use of business specific IT solutions, in this case CMMS.* Lower use of company wide IT solutions, e.g. ERP systems, and when it is used, it is often in combination with a CMMS.* Low IT intensity, in average two systems are used for maintenance management purposes.* The client-server model to be dominating, followed by n-tier solutions.* IT governance is to high extent tied to the maintenance function both in form of investment decision, systems ownership and IT procurement participation.* That IT investments are perceived as beneficial and connected to real needs.The IT intensity was rather low: in average two systems were used for maintenance management. The IT intensity differed over the industry types, having highest intensity in pulp and paper and lowest in wood and timber. This might be explained with IT maturity, i.e. that pulp and paper are better in utilising IT than wood and timber, but an alternative explanation could of course be that the IT systems supporting wood and timber are more specialised for their processes, thus requiring few extra IT systems, and vice versa for pulp and paper. The first explanation seems to be more probable according to previous research, but a closer examination of differences in IT practices depending on industry type would be of interest. The reason for the variance in type and number of systems used could depend on several factors, such as maintenance strategy applied, size and type of production, level of integration between maintenance and production or the maintenance organisation. This study does not reveal which factors that actually affect the situation, and therefore more research could be done within this area.The high focus on maintenance function specific IT solutions and IT governance imply that the focus of IT is for vertical support rather than horizontal or network support. If you own the IT systems and the IT procurement project, you tend to focus on a solution that is directed on improving your working area, rather than a corporate overall ultimate solution. If we compare the statistical results regarding IT governance, two interesting patterns appear. The use of CMMS varies with the IT decision; CMMS are used if maintenance makes the decision, and is used to less extent if IT makes the decision. Maintenance is also involved in the purchase and is system owner if they make the decision, while they are involved to less extent if IT is making the decision and stands as system owner. This indicates that there exist at least two types of IT governance strategies; the most common decentralised, where maintenance manages the IT investments and the less common centralised where IT investments are handled by a central body. More research directed at IT governance strategies and their impacts on maintenance would be of interest.The study participants were satisfied with their IT investments and perceived the IT system as aligned to real needs. This illustrates the connections between the technical, the socio-technical and the social systems: a certain type of IT system and a certain type of IT governance strategy would result in positive business impact.\n6 Conclusions: In conclusion, the question whether industry is ready to adopt new IT concepts within maintenance could be answered saying yes - and no. From the perspective of the current situation, let us outline some opportunities for the future but also some challenges that have to be overcome.Maintenance is a business unit with high level of decentralisation and function orientation with regard to IT practices. Moreover, the work area specific IT solutions currently used seem to match the needs of maintenance to higher extent compared to corporate wide ISs such as ERP systems. The further implementation of e-Maintenance solutions would, from this perspective, likely to be successful. One challenge is low technology maturity, where the current systems are run on one- to three-tier solutions. From an integration perspective, the legacy systems could be hard to fit with more advanced IT. In addition, the decentralised governance implies that maintenance has to take responsibility for the purchase, operations and maintenance of the systems themselves. With more advanced technology, the need of support will increase, which would put more stress on the maintenance staff, or require external help from the IS organisation or the supplier. The decentralisation might also bring economic challenges, where investments in advanced technology simply do not fit into the current budget. It will be a major challenge for the maintenance organisation to justify such an investment. The SaaS concept could become a way to overcome some of these challenges: SaaS suits an organisation with low IT maturity as it distributes the operations, maintenance and support to a third part.The results accounted for in this paper brings novel perspectives on MMIT practices by combining the technology used with organisational issues such as impact and governance. A major contribution is the highlighted possibilities and challenges for implementing advanced IT in maintenance. This had not been achieved without the holistic perspective of the IT practices. The socio-technical approach suggested in this paper shows the tight interrelationship between different factors, layers and systems. The approach also gives many implications for further research. In previous studies, as well as this one, the aspects of training and education are neglected. These aspects have impact on the usability and utility of an IT system, and more research on strategies applied for training and education, as well as for describing the impact of training would be needed. The study also pointed out additional areas for further research: IT maturity and IT governance, and their impacts on the IT systems utility.As a practical implication, the study results could be used to highlight state-of-the-art of MMIT, and thereby set the topic on the corporate agenda for setting the future direction of IT investments in maintenance. The results could for also be used for benchmarking purposes, comparing maintenance IT practices against other corporations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The aim with this paper is to describe current IT practices within maintenance in Swedish industry, and to outline the future possible developments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study is performed as a web-based questionnaire survey consisting of 71 participants. A systems perspective is applied for capturing the most relevant aspects of IT utilisation.\nFindings: - The IT practices are characterised by high use of business-specific IT solutions, low use of company-wide IT solutions, low IT intensity and the client-server architecture is dominating. The purchase decision and ownership of IT is to high extent tied to the maintenance function. Moreover, IT systems are apprehended as beneficial and connected to real needs. The findings imply a decentralised IT governance form and a mainly vertical (functional) IT support.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The socio-technical approach suggested in this paper helps us to identify which areas to study, and also shows the tight interrelationship between different factors, layers and systems.\nPractical implications: - The study results could be used for benchmarking purposes or to highlight state-of-the-art of IT utilisation in maintenance, and thereby set the topic on the corporate agenda.\nOriginality/value: - Studies describing IT utilisation within maintenance in the form of case studies and surveys exist, but they mainly focus on one aspect. This study approached the problem from a socio-technical perspective, covering several aspects connected to IT utilisation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Skilled trades to university student: luck or courage?	[ "Teacher education", "Vocational education", "Habitus", "Second career teacher", "Skilled trade" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The study examines program participants' experiences as they transition to a second career, from the skilled trades to the teaching profession. These individuals are switching to a career that has a requirement for university attendance. Some had completed high school while others did not, but all continued to the skilled trade workforce with university as an unlikely possibility. At the heart of this transition, then, is a move from the blue-collar skilled trade labor market to the white-collar teaching profession.\nLiterature review: Training as teachers provides the pedagogical content knowledge to complement the strong subject content knowledge possessed by people who are qualified and experienced in industry (Robertson, 2008). But moving from one career to another is not without difficulty. Berger and D'Ascoli (2012a, b) and Zuzovsky and Donitsa-Schmidt (2014) state that although there are studies about second-career teachers and their motivations for entering the teaching profession, there are few studies that examine second-career VET teacher experiences. In their study of 605 Swiss VET teachers, Berger and D'Ascoli (2012a) determine that an important motivation to teach is the \"intrinsic value of the career and perceived teaching ability\" (p. 245). Watt and Richardson (2007, 2008), in their studies of Australian second-career teachers, developed the \"Factors Influencing Teaching Choices\" approach that examines motives for choosing teaching as a second career. They look at social aspects that influence individuals' decisions to enter the teaching profession; for example, past teaching and learning, and views about teaching. These researchers identify five factors that influence individuals' decisions to teach: finances, family time, previous choices, social, and career adaptability (Richardson and Watt, 2005). Lee's (2011) study of 12 teachers from six Georgia schools in the USA confirms that maturity and previous work experience positively contributes to teaching for second-career teachers. In the study, the teachers give many reasons for selecting teaching as a second career, including family and personal lifestyle choices, desire to engage in meaningful work, and following a humanistic calling. A three-year study conducted by Green (2015) of 12 second-career vocational teachers working in Australian schools also clearly confirms the value of previous working experiences. These teachers reported that using apprenticeship-type pedagogy created a collaborative learning situation for their students.\nResearch design: The paper is based on a follow-up to a large research study, carried out over the years 2009-2015, which evaluated Alberta Education's \"CTS Bridge to Teacher Certification Program.\" This program, as mentioned earlier, involves enrollment at the University of Alberta in the Faculty of Education's BEd degree program and a formal sponsored relationship with one of Alberta's school districts. In the large study, quantitative data about teacher recruitment, retention, and education practices were gathered as well as qualitative data. The initial, large study, CTS: Teacher Recruitment, Retention, and Education, involved 221 on-line survey participants representing 39 school authorities and the Association of Independent Schools and Colleges in Alberta. There were an additional 21 one-on-one in-person or telephone interviews and 29 individuals who participated in eight in-person or telephone focus groups located in Northern, Central, and Southern Alberta from 16 school authorities.\nFindings and discussion: Study participants clearly indicated that university education and earning a degree had greater cultural capital status than their previous work and education accomplishments. Capital value was supported by the distinct differences participants described between the university and apprenticeship educational fields. Individuals negotiated from one field to another but experienced tensions because of their former habitus and dispositions, and associated capitals.\nConclusion: This research study has highlighted these career-changing adults' engagement in university study against a background of tensions of habitus and fields (Bourdieu, 1998). Because of their strong \"blue collar\" backgrounds the transition was particularly substantial. They encountered disruption of their established and normalized expectations, for example, what does it mean to enroll in a BEd degree program and navigate the unfamiliar territory of the university campus? Participants' persistence, resilience, and optimism within the context of the five career adaptability characterizes strongly contributed to their determination to succeed as second-career teachers.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine participants' experiences as they transitioned from the skilled trade labor workforce to the school teaching profession. Their goal was to work in the secondary school system as certificated teachers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study examined interview data from a 2014 to 2015 evaluation study of participants in the Career and Technology Studies Bridge to Teacher Certification Program in Alberta. Interview comments of 20 participants were analyzed.\nFindings: Participants earning a bachelor of education degree countered their skilled trade habitus with adjustment to the university habitus, with support provided though the program and strong networks among the students. Individuals demonstrated resiliency, persistence, and optimism. The findings may have significance more broadly for a re-examination of university policies and spaces for non-traditional students.\nOriginality/value: The paper provides an insight into how a well-designed program provides opportunities for individuals to transition from the skilled trade workforce to university. Further, the paper contributes to the scholarly literature in the area of second-career teachers' habitus, fields, and capitals.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The dark side of experience-seeking mall shoppers	[ "Entertainment", "Experiences", "Retail strategy", "Hedonic shopping", "Enclosed malls", "Shopping center management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Almost 20 years ago, Pine and Gilmore (1998) inspired retailers to move beyond the selling of products and services and into the realm of selling entertaining or so-called memorable experiences to consumers. They argued that malls and retailers should transform mundane consumer shopping excursions and quotidian shopping malls into memorable shopping experiences, with design elements that engage a shopper's five senses. For example, they described the Forum Shops in Las Vegas as an archetype experiential mall. Indeed, the Forum Shops transform mundane shopping into a sojourn-like trip to ancient Rome, through architectural design, and the mall realizes substantially higher average per square foot sales than traditional, non-theatrical-like malls. As a result, malls and retailers were instructed not to continue simply focusing on selling goods and services but to provide their customers with entertainment options during their shopping trips (El-Adly, 2007). \"Shoppertainment\" had now entered the retailing vernacular (Backstrom and Johansson, 2006) as a prominent strategic retail tactic (Martin and Turley, 2004).\nLiterature review: Experiential department stores\nMethodology: Context\nResults: To assess the influence of the importance of mall-based activities from shoppers' perspectives on their behaviors and attitudes toward a focal mall, we performed a two-step cluster analysis with SPSS 21. The two-step cluster analysis overcomes many obstacles that characterize traditional cluster analysis procedures, such as k-means. Most notably, the two-step cluster analysis eliminates uncertainties about the optimal number of clusters in a continuous or categorical data set by employing the lowest Bayesian information criterion (BIC) value as a criterion statistic (Rosenbaum, 2008; SPSS, 2015). In addition, the two-step cluster procedure is robust to deviations in multivariate normality among continuous variables (Norusis, 2008).\nDiscussion: To date, marketing researchers and retail consultants have argued that retailers and shopping malls can counter e-commerce competition (Grewal et al., 2009; Rigby, 2011) and problems associated with consumer boredom in physical malls and bricks-and-mortar stores (Verde and Wharton, 2015) by offering shoppers an array of activities that stimulate their senses. Thus, many contemporary malls engage in shoppertainment by providing customers with complementary entertainment, arts-and-crafts exhibits, interactive displays, farmers' markets, and activities for children, women, and older-aged consumers. Ironically, despite all the research that encourages retailers and mall developers to enhance their experiential offerings, surprisingly little is known about the impact of these offerings on managerially relevant outcomes, such as shopper satisfaction, WOM, loyalty, and monetary expenditures. This paper addresses this knowledge void and, in doing so, exposes a potential dark side of experiential retailing.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to illustrate that mall shoppers who participate in a mall's experiential offerings, including entertainment and activities, do not necessarily exhibit more favorable attitudes or behaviors toward the mall than mall shoppers who do not participate in these offerings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study employs survey methodology from a sample collected in an expansive regional mall that offers customers experiential activities.\nFindings: The findings show that mall shoppers who partake in mall-based activities are less satisfied, are less likely to spread positive word of mouth, and have lesser desire to return to the mall than shoppers who do not partake in these activities. The findings also reveal that mall expenditures are the same between shoppers who partake in mall activities and those who do not.\nResearch limitations/implications: Researchers have argued that malls can compete with digital retailers by offering shoppers experiential activities. Although segments of shoppers partake in these activities, this study finds that experiential investments do not result in significant favorable shopper outcomes.\nPractical implications: Mall developers that implement experiential offerings as a means to combat competition from digital retailers may not attain managerially relevant results from doing so.\nOriginality/value: Although retailing academics and consultants espouse the idea that retailers can obtain financial benefits by creating memorable experiences for shoppers, this research offers empirical evidence that counters these speculations. In the case of enclosed malls, investments in experiential features and activities may not lead to improved shopper attitudes, behaviors, or sales.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Downsizing and the willingness to mentor	[ "Mentoring", "Organizational context", "Perceived organizational support", "Downsizing", "Organization-based self-esteem", "Willingness to mentor" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A mentoring relationship usually involves a more experienced individual, the mentor, who helps a less experienced individual, the protege, in furthering the protege's progress in an organization (Haggard et al., 2011; Kram, 1985). Many organizations encourage mentoring and make it an important component of their human resource development program because mentoring promotes the growth of the mentor and the protege (Ragins, 2011), encourages knowledge transfer and enhances individual and organizational learning (Laiho and Brandt, 2012). Organizations may promote mentoring indirectly by encouraging a culture that supports professional development, or they may provide direct support by creating formal workplace mentoring programs that match and sponsor mentors and proteges (Baugh and Fagenson-Eland, 2007). One organizational challenge to obtaining the benefits of mentoring is that organizations must have a supply of willing mentors, but not all members of an organization have an interest in becoming mentors (Allen, 2003).\nMethods: Participants and procedures\nResults: Means, standard deviations and correlations are presented in Table I. Key independent variables (POS and OBSE) and demographic variables (having been a mentor or protege, education, organization rank) were positively correlated with willingness to mentor. Willingness to mentor had significant negative correlations with downsizing experience, the threat of downsizing and gender (being a woman).\nDiscussion: Researchers have argued that mentoring relationships are shaped by organizational context (Eby et al., 2006), but there has been limited research on this impact (Janssen et al., 2015). Research has shown that negative experiences could cause employees to withhold OCBs (Rhoades and Eisenberger, 2002; Stokes et al., 2013), and this study extends our understanding of this notion by showing a negative relationship between surviving a downsizing and willingness to mentor.\nPractical implications: Mentoring can enhance knowledge transfer and learning (Laiho and Brandt, 2012), and, thus, it is important for organizations to encourage willingness to mentor. This study has a number of implications for fostering mentoring willingness. The negative impact of the downsizing experience on willingness to mentor indicates the need to separate the initiation of mentoring programs from such organizational events even if it means delaying the initiation of a mentoring program. Managers who want to encourage willingness to mentor should take into consideration the positive relationship between OBSE and willingness to mentor. OBSE is grounded in an employee's overall level of self-esteem, but it also can be increased by organizational action. Job success can enhance OBSE, and, thus, managers should take steps to enhance employee success and recognize employee accomplishments (Bowling et al., 2010). Managers also can use job design to enhance OBSE by encouraging job autonomy, ensuring task significance and providing high-quality feedback (Pierce and Gardner, 2004).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine how employee perceptions of organizational context relate to willingness to mentor. This research will help organizations to understand the relationship between organizational context and willingness to mentor to encourage mentoring.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study used a survey approach. Employees who worked in the development, production and marketing of pharmaceuticals were administered a survey questionnaire. Data were analyzed through structural equation modeling.\nFindings: The findings showed that the downsizing experience was negatively related to willingness to mentor, and the threat of being downsized was negatively related to perceived organizational support. In contrast, perceived organizational support was positively related to organization-based self-esteem, which, in turn, was positively related to willingness to mentor.\nResearch limitations/implications: The relationship between perceived organizational support and organization-based self-esteem, with its subsequent positive effect on willingness to mentor, indicates the importance of organizations' providing their employees with needed organizational support. Conversely, the negative relationship between the downsizing experience and willingness to mentor, and the threat of being downsized and perceived organizational support, indicates the need to separate mentoring programs from downsizing events even if it means delaying the initiation of a mentoring programs.\nOriginality/value: Research on the impact of organizational context on willingness to mentor is limited, and this study helps to address that gap.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The Six Sigma program: an empirical study of Brazilian companies	[ "Six Sigma", "Quality management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Many authors recognise the difficulty of defining the constructs and boundaries of Six Sigma but emphasise that the program has singular aspects with respect to other quality management approaches (Klefsjo et al., 2001; McAdam and Lafferty, 2004; Llorens-Montes and Molina, 2006; Schroeder et al., 2008; Linderman et al., 2003; Choo et al., 2007).\n2. Literature review: Six Sigma was created by Motorola and the approach was first diffused using American companies and later disseminated globally by their subsidiaries (Mitchell, 1992; Harry, 1998; Harry and Schroeder, 2000). A survey with respondents from the three countries (the Netherlands, the UK and the USA) performed by Van Iwaarden et al. (2008) noted that the meaning conferred the Six Sigma approach varies little among organisations, which suggests that it is a transnational concept. However; McAdam and Lafferty (2004) caution that the degree of coverage provided by what organisations call Six Sigma varies significantly, particularly for those that have simultaneously adopted other programs.\n3. Research design: As previously mentioned, this study aims to assess Six Sigma's status among Brazilian companies. Furthermore it investigates the integration between Six Sigma and other quality management approaches. Additionally, the CSFs for Six Sigma implementation, the primary Six Sigma program characteristics and the tools applied were identified. Finally, the results of Six Sigma use were analysed.\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Six Sigma diffusion in Brazil\n5. Conclusions: The findings obtained in this survey facilitate the outlining of Six Sigma implementation patterns in Brazilian companies and allow for comparison with previous empirical studies (Antony and Banuelas, 2002; Arauz and Suzuki, 2004; Kumar and Antony, 2008; Van Iwaarden et al., 2008; Antony et al., 2008; Zu et al., 2008; Shah et al., 2008).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the status of Six Sigma's status in Brazilian companies and understand the integration of this program with other quality management approaches. Additionally, the critical success factors (CSFs) for Six Sigma implementation and primary Six Sigma program characteristics were identified. Finally, the results of the used of Six Sigma were analysed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An extensive literature review illustrates the primary Six Sigma characteristics and its relationship with other quality approaches. The research methodology encompasses survey development and statistical analyses. Questionnaires are distributed to 1,000 large firms in the manufacturing and service industries in Brazil. Altogether, a total of 198 firms, of which 46 companies adopted the Six Sigma program, participated in this study.\nFindings: The results suggest a synergic and incremental pattern of quality model implementation. The study reveals that companies that have adopted Six Sigma have a long history of implementing quality programs, which suggests a certain level of quality maturity. The studied companies perceive in Six Sigma an incremental evolution, which can be combined with earlier initiatives and provides strong synergy with ISO 9000. The findings of this study confirm the distinctive Six Sigma role structure suggested by several authors. However, three possible configurations of the role structure were found that differ in terms of training and the dedication of human resources involved in the Six Sigma program.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study demonstrates the inherent limits of the research method adopted, the use of a non-probabilistic sample and a reliance on self-reported perceptions, which introduces bias to the analysis.\nPractical implications: Important managerial implications of this study are related to the Six Sigma structure adopted. The capillarity of the program in the organisation as a whole can be related to the type of role structure configuration adopted. This structure can have an impact in terms of both numbers and employees' and managers' degree of involvement, as well as the type of training and resources provided.\nOriginality/value: The diffusion of Six Sigma in Brazilian companies is less widespread than in other countries. Three possible configurations of the role structure were found that differ in terms of the training and dedication of human resources entailed by the Six Sigma program. Three CSFs factors were identified: organisation, infrastructure and human resources.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Dynamic publishing: a new breakthrough for learning technologies	[ "Dynamic publishing", "Static publishing", "Learning management systems", "Personalisation", "M‐learning", "Learning", "Computer based learning", "Publishing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Since the early days of what has become \"learning technologies\", there has been an on-going debate about whether \"content is king\" - rather than the technology which delivers that content to learners.\nFurther details and contacts: More in-depth discussion of the issues of static and dynamic publishing is available at: www.exact-learning.com/en/resources/whitepapers/dynamic-publishing-a-content-centric-approach-to-learning-personalisation-Join the discussion at eXact learning blog: www.exact-learning.com/blog\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of a new development in learning technology, while also demonstrating detailed knowledge of key developments. The new development in learning technology - known as dynamic publishing - makes possible advances in personalised and mobile learning delivery, among other things.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper gives an explanation of key terms, including LMS, LCMS, static publishing, dynamic publishing - and their key features and benefits.\nFindings: - Dynamic publishing offers ten key benefits.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Dynamic publishing offers many advantages to both developers of online learning and users of online learning. In particular, it enables innovative business modelling, along with skills and media personalisation solutions - leading to overall content strategy optimisation.\nPractical implications: - There are a number of practical implications for learning content developers, learning and development managers and learners. At most, dynamic publishing could revolutionise the way that online learning contents are developed, stored, accessed and delivered - on an individualised basis - to learners.\nSocial implications: - This could change not just the world of corporate learning (and online learning especially) but also the way that academic knowledge is imparted.\nOriginality/value: - This learning technology - of dynamic publishing - is, as yet, in its early stages. As with all technologies of recent times, it is set to develop rapidly.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The road to facility management	[ "Education", "European Union", "Facilities management", "Portugal" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Facility management (FM) is a rather new field in today's market. It was only in the year 1978 that the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) was formed in the USA. In 1984, FM was \"pushed\" to Europe by the European Facility Management Network (EuroFM) to \"advance the knowledge in FM in Europe and its application in Practice, Education and Research\". After the first introduction of FM in Europe, the importance of FM grew rapidly.\n2. Background: Due to the unique history and development of Portugal, FM has \"penetrated\" the market only recently. As a result, FM has not grown into becoming an official field of education offered at universities. To this date, there are no FM degrees. Even though the Portuguese Association of Facility Management (APFM) strives for a new FM study programme (and hence, boosting the life of FM within Portuguese market), neither they nor educational institutions have succeeded yet in implementing a recognised FM study programme. In addition the market is simply not aware of the benefits that FM has to offer.\n3. Research methodology: Methods\n4. State of the art: Definition\n5. Results and discussion: The FM market in Portugal needs a boost in terms of recognition, education, and awareness. However, due to the country's unfavourable economic situation this is rather complicated to change. When looking at the Portuguese market, it can be stated that the economy is in need of many aspects: more employment opportunities, cost reduction, clear organisational structure and increase of the educational programmes for professionals and future facility managers. For that reason, implementing FM can be identified as a need because FM brings many benefits such as: cost efficiency, higher customer satisfaction, proper building maintenance and safety. Not to mention, employment opportunities arising from FM are abundant. These aspects are in line with the need of the current economy and will give the field of FM a proverbial boost in Portugal.\n6. Recommendation and conclusion: To recall, the research question is \"How can the APFM best support the Portuguese market's need, by implementing a facility management study programme?\" Research suggests that a FM study programme should be implemented in clearly defined and distinct phases. These phases run from creating awareness of the importance of FM in the Portuguese market to the implementation of a solid full-time Bachelor and Master FM degree. Table V shows the initial phases that Portuguese universities should aim at completing.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into facility management in Portugal as well as in Europe and what a facility management study programme must entail in Portugal in order to implement this.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper describes the mixed-methods approach. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used based on extensive literature research of the subject. Semi-structured interviews were held with ten professionals from the FM field. The quantitative method was in the shape of a questionnaire sent to 40 professionals in Europe.\nFindings: The results show that Portugal is not on the same level as the rest of Europe when it comes to FM. Also, FM is rather of a technical nature and lacks service orientation and managerial elements. Moreover, Portugal should first focus on creating awareness about the field of FM and provide FM study programmes accordingly. Research shows that this could be a lengthy process.\nOriginality/value: Currently there is no facility management study programme offered in Portugal. However, by gaining insight into this field and how facility management is of great added value to the market, a step closer to implementing a study programme is taken.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Value versus growth in PIIGS stock markets	[ "Asset pricing", "Value premium", "Fundamental ratios", "M41", "G10", "G11", "G12", "G14" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A main paradigm in the financial industry is the hypothesis that markets are efficient, asset prices fully reflect all available information and, therefore, it is not possible to achieve abnormal returns[1], or, in other words, to beat the market (Fama, 1970). However, several studies on market anomalies have tried to contest the argument of the efficient market hypothesis (EMH), such as Ball and Brown (1968) on post-earnings-announcement drift, Basu (1977) on the relation of price to earnings (P/E) in investment performance, Banz (1981) on size effect, Keim (1983) on seasonal effects, De Bondt and Thaler (1985) on behaviour and psychological individual decision making and Piotroski (2000) on the usage of historical financial statement information. These are some examples in the literature that directly, or indirectly, postulate against the EMH and that demonstrate the possibility of achieving abnormal returns by following different investment strategies. Whether the markets are truly efficient or not is without doubt a controversial question. What we do know is that the investor's ultimate goal should be to construct a portfolio that maximises the discounted value of future returns (Markowitz, 1952). In order to do so, investors select an investment strategy in accordance to their beliefs and preferences. Among the vast list of different strategies used by market participants, this study will focus on two of the strategies that researchers have devoted a considerable amount and effort to study, and which are widely recognised amongst financial analysts.\n2. Literature review: Fama (1970) originated one of the most debated topics that still endure among the financial industry. According to his theory, the market has three forms of efficiency: weak, semi-strong and strong. With weak efficiency, stock prices follow a random walk process, reflecting all historical prices, and thus attempts to predict future prices, and cashing in excess returns using past data will be unsuccessful. In the case of semi-strong efficiency, stock prices adjust very quickly and in an un-biased manner whenever new data are available in the market, implying that neither fundamental analysis nor technical analysis techniques will be able to produce excess returns. In a strong efficiency market, stock prices reflect all the information available, whether public or private, thus, preventing market participants from earning excess returns. In his view, stocks always trade at their intrinsic value, making it impossible for investors to buy underpriced or to sell over-priced stocks, and to outperform the market without increasing risk.\n3. Data and methodology: The study uses risk and returns of stocks listed in the European Union PIIGS in order to analyse the existence of a value premium, individually, and as a common region. Since we are dealing with a low number of countries, we consider companies listed on both primary and secondary exchanges in order to increase sample size and to accommodate diversification purposes when constructing portfolios. The sample changes over time, reflecting new listings, but it does not include companies that have been delisted through time, causing a survivorship bias, as noticed in other studies (Banz and Breen, 1986). The sample period is from 2003 to 2015, thus, guaranteeing that the euro currency had been implemented in all the countries. Monthly returns and fundamental variables such as P/E, P/B, P/CF and P/S were collected from the DataStream database.\n4. Empirical findings and discussion: In Table III, we present a summary of the univariate analysis of average annual returns obtained by value and growth investment strategies described in the methodology section.\n5. Conclusion: Empirical research has proved that value stocks tend to have higher returns than growth stocks in international markets. This value premium has been explained differently among academia. Some studies point out that the higher returns of value stocks are a mere compensation for their increased risk, while other studies reject this hypothesis, and attribute the result to investor behaviourist reactions in the stock markets. The objective of this research was to add further evidence on the value premium in the PIIGS region, where little research has been carried out before, and to evaluate the riskiness of the value and growth strategies using the CAPM model, and some of its variations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to construct and evaluate value and growth portfolios in Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain, which are commonly known as the EU PIIGS, from 2003 to 2015. Previous research evidence suggests that stocks trading at a lower price relative to their fundamentals (value stocks) tend to outperform stocks that trade at higher prices (growth stocks) in the long run. Although this market anomaly has been studied immensely worldwide, especially for the US stock market, there is no clear evidence whether such an assertion is applicable in less-renowned countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper utilises Fama and Macbeth (1973) regressions and its model extensions.\nFindings: This paper finds a significant value premium in these countries, which is compatible with previous studies conducted worldwide.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first attempt to examine this asset pricing anomaly in the PIIGS.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Viewpoint: getting your qualitative service research published	[ "Publishing", "Qualitative research", "Validity", "Excellence" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A manuscript that uses the right quotes to illustrate an interesting phenomenon allows the reader to get close and personal with the informants and events that inspired the researcher(s). This intimacy means that the reader can see the world through the eyes of the researcher(s) or, even better, the eyes of the informants. The reader might even go beyond solely reading the text and experience an \"A-ha!\" moment (Bansal and Corley, 2011). Qualitative research is great for addressing questions about what or how something occurred and for unraveling processes from the perspective of the informant. This paper takes a broad view on what constitutes excellent qualitative research, akin to the idea that \"qualitative methodology is as much art as it is effort, piles of data, and time in the field\" (Tracy, 2010, p. 841).\nWhat is excellent qualitative research?: Based on our experiences as editors, reviewers and authors, this paper discusses what makes research excellent and how to translate this excellence in a manuscript. We included some features of excellent qualitative research from the general discussion of excellence in research and added others that are particularly relevant to service research. The features cover the main components of a research project from start to finish, and not solely the empirical study with qualitative data. This includes all aspects that are relevant for publishing the research, namely, the nature of the main idea, designing and conducting the qualitative data collection and analysis, reporting the qualitative study and describing its value. Apart from discussing the features of excellent research, our paper offers advice to researchers to advance qualitative research and publish it in peer-reviewed service research journals. Table I at the end of this section summarizes the features of excellent service research and advises on how to address each of them. The five features of excellent research are as follows:\nDiscussion: In a commentary for the Academy of Management Review, Whetten (1989) argues that a contribution to research is valued based on the answers to seven questions. Although intended for conceptual contributions, these questions are worth asking ourselves as authors of qualitative service research papers. The first question is \"What is new?\", suggesting that a manuscript needs to make a significant contribution to current thinking. This does not imply that a new theory should emerge but that an addition to an existing theory needs to be substantial. The second question to ask is \"So what?\", i.e. will the manuscript likely change the practice of service management and marketing in any way? The third question - \"Why so?\" - suggests that the assumptions and logic of the research should fit with both theory and empirical evidence. The fourth question - \"Was it well done?\" -focuses on the description of the research methodology and the need to convey completeness and transparency. The fifth question - \"Was it done well?\" - is a key question on whether the manuscript is well crafted and flows logically and smoothly. The sixth question - \"Why now?\" -asks whether the manuscript's topic will advance current discussions, stimulate new ones or revitalize old ones. Finally, \"Who cares?\" suggests that not all manuscripts will be interesting. A manuscript may be technically well put together but inherently uninteresting to the readers of a specific service journal. If we as authors can provide good answers to these seven questions, we probably have a great qualitative service manuscript in the making.\nConclusion: We surely all want to carry out excellent research that produces significant findings with theoretical and practical implications. But, what can the service research community do to advance excellent qualitative service research? We provide a number of recommendations that we believe will strengthen the practice of excellent qualitative service research.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide authors with guidelines for carrying out excellent qualitative service research. It describes the features that editors and reviewers use to evaluate qualitative research and pinpoints what authors can do to improve their manuscripts for publication.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper identifies five features of excellent qualitative service research - relevance, rigor, integrity, narration and impact - and describes them with a focus on what they mean and what authors can do to meet these standards.\nFindings: The paper suggests that manuscripts are often rejected because they fail to meet key standards of excellent qualitative research. It calls for more discussion on research methodology and research ethics, especially when service research strives to make a difference such as investigating critical service contexts or dealing with vulnerable participants.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to a better use and application of qualitative research methodology. It focuses on specific actions that researchers can take to improve the quality of their service research manuscripts.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The pop-up store as a foreign operation mode (FOM) for retailers	[ "Internationalization", "Retailing", "Foreign operation mode", "Pop-up store" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since 2008, there has been a growing trend for international retailers to use pop-up stores in foreign markets, such as a Uniqlo store opened for two months in Paris in 2009, an Azzaro shop launched for ten weeks in 2010 in Riyadh, and a Louis Vuitton store set up for only four months in fall 2008 at the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Los Angeles.\nRetail FOMs and the pop-up store: a literature review: The research framework was built from the international business and retailing literature both on FOMs and pop-up stores. Numerous retail FOMs exist and new ones, such as pop-up stores, appear over time.\nResearch methodology: Considering these objectives and the lack of existing research on the pop-up store as a FOM, a qualitative study was conducted that took the form of a multiple case-study. The research sought the how (the characteristics) and why (motives for the choice and contributions to the retail internationalization process) of a pop-up store as a FOM, an issue for which this methodology is said to be particularly relevant (Yin, 2009, p. 1). Moreover, case-study research is considered to be suitable in the early stages of research on a specific topic (Eisenhart, 1989) and the retailers' viewpoint of the pop-up store is virtually inexistent (Niehm et al., 2007). This methodology is also consistent with recent studies stating that FOM research would benefit greatly from qualitative approaches in order to tackle the complexity of the phenomenon (Benito et al., 2009; Canabal and White, 2008). The research methodology was underpinned by the theory offered in the literature review in two ways: on the one hand, it oriented the cases chosen in the sample; on the other hand, it gave the grounds for structuring the interview guide and specifying the constructs identified as relevant in terms of interview questions and empirical observations.\nFindings: Characteristics of the pop-up store as a FOM\nDiscussion and implications: The originality of the study is to address an underdeveloped research area through the analysis of the retailers' assessment of pop-up stores as a FOM. It serves to move forward knowledge of pop-up stores into an international context by providing new results into the characteristics and choice motivations for the pop-up store as a FOM and its role in the retail internationalization process. In doing so, it also contributes to deepen the understanding of the internationalization path of retail companies.\nLimitations and directions for future research: Results from this research should be interpreted taking into account its inherent limitations. While the data were collected from different sectors, the study sample only includes speciality retailers. As mass retailers have notable differences in their internationalization process (Lowe and Wrigley, 2009), future research is therefore required to further test the findings of this study in this context. A more general direction that emerges from the present findings is that future research should examine the dynamics of FOM choice over time in retailing, especially how and why retail companies shift from one FOM to another and the different FOMs that are used in combination. Additional issues warranting further investigation also include exploration of how and why the concept of international pop-up stores will evolve over time. Currently, the ephemeral appears increasingly as a structural principle (Lipovetsky, 1987). A culture of the ephemeral is developing, which leads to a situation where temporary concepts - such as temporary exhibitions in a museum - attract more visitors than the permanent art collections (Decorp, 2008). Such evolutions for store concepts deserve particular attention. These follow-up works would lead to a deeper understanding of the pop-up store as a FOM.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is first, to describe the characteristics of a pop-up store in an international context, second, to investigate the motivating factors for its choice and third, to analyze its role in the retail internationalization process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A multiple-case study was adopted. Research was carried out using secondary data sources, social media observation and semi-structured interviews with senior managers in charge of the international development and management of pop-up stores. A conceptualizing content analysis was conducted both manually and with NVivo software.\nFindings: The main results cover the following aspects of an international pop-up store and highlight the differences between this choice of FOM and other store formats: key characteristics: location, design and atmosphere, merchandise mix, and store events are very creative in order to attract foreign consumer attention; choice motivations: three motivations were found, which were first, to test and adapt the concept with foreign consumers possibly unfamiliar with such a store concept, second, to raise and sustain the international profile of a retail brand, and third, to develop relationship networks with stakeholders in foreign markets; role in the retail internationalization process: a dynamic approach is adopted as role varies from mode switch at the entry stage to mode combination at the further expansion stage.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results of this research suggest avenues for future research, particularly in relation to how the concept of the international pop-up store will evolve over time.\nPractical implications: This research provides guidelines for international retail managers wishing to choose a pop-up store as a foreign operation mode (FOM).\nOriginality/value: This research provides a new insight into the characteristics, choice motivations and management of a pop-up store in an international context.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Perceptions of product advantage, NPD and organisational performance	[ "Organisational performance", "New product development", "SME", "New product performance", "Product advantage" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Olsen et al. (2006) identified that innovation in products and processes generates greater firm performance such as increased profits, market share, productivity, and sales. Understanding the different dimensions of new product performance is critical if firms are to continue to innovate successfully. Initial findings from the Community Innovation Survey 2004-2006 (Community Innovation Survey, 2008, p. 2) identify that \"product and process innovation rates tended to be higher as the size of the enterprise increased with large enterprises more than twice as likely to have these types of innovation activities compared with small enterprises\". This suggests that current innovation policies and supports are more adequately addressing the requirements of larger firms rather than SMEs. Given that current policy is based on research reflected in the extant literature, this study addresses the gap in previous studies which have identified what firms should prioritise and what they do well but not what they consider to be important. Closing this gap (as illustrated in Figure 1) is critical if practices in NPD management in SMEs are to be changed and redirected from what they consider to be important to what will have an impact on their overall performance.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Product advantage\n3. Research methodology: A quantitative research approach was adopted, using a cross-sectional survey of a sample of 137 firms representing the industry sectors active within the Irish economy. Firm size was classified in terms of employment levels and annual turnover, in line with the definition of SMEs adopted by the EU Commission in May 2005 (see http://europa.eu.int.pitt.idm.oclc.org/comm/enterprise/), the sample is summarised in Table I. SMEs are classified as being either micro, small or medium.\n4. Results: Within this section, product advantage, new product performance and organisational performance are examined separately. In all cases, the numbers presented are for the measure of importance as described above. In each case the difference between SMEs and large firms are presented followed by a more detailed summary of micro, small, medium and large firms. This analysis facilitates a general understanding of the differences between SMEs and large firms and also sheds some light on how the focus of NPD managers changes as firms grow.\n5. Discussion: The data presented in this paper identify the most important and commonly used product advantage, new product performance and organisational performance measures in micro, small, medium and large firms. The results identified that firms in different size categories perceive product advantage, new product advantage and organisational performance differently, and as a firm grows the importance they attribute to the various dimensions changes.\n6. Conclusions: This study defined product advantage as a multi-dimensional construct with five dimensions related to:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to extend previous studies on new product development (NPD) performance by identifying the product advantage, new product performance and organisational performance indicators that are considered by small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) to be most relevant to their performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A quantitative research approach was adopted, using a cross-sectional survey of a sample of 137 firms representing the industry sectors active within the Irish economy. The research instrument was based on existing recognised research measures.\nFindings: The results suggest that: large firms consider that their products derive advantage through product quality and cost, while SMEs are more concerned with satisfying customer needs; larger firms concentrate on market measures in measuring new product performance, while SMEs focus on customer acceptance measures; and in measuring organisational performance larger firms focus on market share and profitability, while SMEs concentrate on profitability and sales growth.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study identifies the aspects of product advantage, new product performance and organisational performance on which firms concentrate, thereby increasing our ability to redirect their focus from what they consider to be important, to what will have an impact on their firm's performance.\nOriginality/value: This study identifies the aspects of product advantage, new product performance and organisational performance on which firms concentrate, thereby increasing our ability to redirect their focus from what they consider to be important, to what will have an impact on their firm's performance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Human capital measures, strategy, and performance: HR managers' perceptions	[ "Human capital", "Performance measures", "Human resources strategies" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Management literature, in particular resource-based strategy acknowledges the fundamental role of intangibles and human capital (HC) in the creation of value (Barney, 1991; Barney and Wright, 1998; Grant, 1991; Lev, 2001; Quinn et al., 1996). HC encompasses all competencies and knowledge of an organization's workforce (Davenport, 1999). By structuring the management and sharing of this knowledge, the organization can develop key competencies that are difficult to imitate, and thereby gain a sustainable competitive advantage. Managing HC well can be a key success factor. This importance of HC led companies to implement human capital measures (HCM).The form, content and efficacy of performance measurement systems (PMS) have been extensively studied in the management accounting and control systems (MACS) literature (Bruns, 1992; Eccles, 1991; Kaplan, 1990; Kaplan and Norton, 1996; Simons, 2000). This literature has criticized traditional financial performance measures and recommended, instead, the use of non-financial performance measures which are capable of measuring and controlling the organization's internal performance drivers (Dixon et al., 1990; Fisher, 1992). HCM belong to this \"new\" set of non-traditional and non-financial performance measures.The composition and form of these HCM have also given rise to an abundant literature, especially in the field of human resources (HR) management (Beatty et al., 2003; Becker et al., 2001; Boudreau and Ramstad, 2003; Fitz-Enz, 1995; Huselid et al., 2005b). Indeed, armed with evidence of the value HC can help create, HR professionals can take a greater role in the formulation of strategy and of HCM. For many years, they have been encouraged to evolve away from administrative transaction processors to strategic business partners (Lawler et al., 2006; Ulrich and Brockbank, 2005). With the widespread outsourcing of HR administrative tasks, this exhortation is becoming ever more urgent. One of the consistent refrains that accompany the encouragement for HR professionals to become strategic business partners concerns the use of HCM. As stated by Beatty et al. (2003, p. 107):We wish to address what and how HR can contribute to the strategic success of firms by transforming itself from a partner (that can be removed or outsourced) to a player - on the field, in the game, with the ability to score. The ability to score necessitates a new understanding of the rules of the game - a new perspective on what HR is to contribute, how its systems enable it to contribute, and how its ultimate deliverables can be measured. The rules of the game mean that HR should only attempt to score on an HR scorecard integrated with the firm's Business Scorecard.As a business partner involved in the formulation of strategy, HR professionals should thus be in a position to support the development of relevant strategic HC measures.To the extent that HCM are part of MACS and that key performance indicators (KPI) and/or scorecards are often implemented by management accountants, it is important for management controllers to understand HR managers' perspective and their needs in terms of HC measures.The MACS literature has also demonstrated that management control systems are contingent upon strategy (Chenhall, 2003; Hartmann and Moers, 1999; Langfield-Smith, 1997, 2007). This \"fit\" between strategy and MACS specifically applies to PMS (Burney and Widener, 2007; Chenhall, 2005; Chenhall and Langfield-Smith, 1998; Ittner et al., 2003; Kaplan and Norton, 2004; Lillis, 2002; van der Stede et al., 2006; Widener, 2006). In this literature, however, the distinction between performance measures remains at a high level, most often simply between financial versus non-financial. Specifically, HCM, when included, remain broadly defined at the human resources level, such as employee satisfaction, turnover, or labor costs.This paper combines and goes beyond the conclusions drawn from these different bodies of literature, in particular by focusing on HC measures that are one specific component of the non-financial measures used in the MACS literature. It reports the results of a survey and interviews of HR professionals to identify and better understand their perceptions and expectations of HC measures' content, links to strategy, and impact on performance.Results confirm for researchers as well as HR and management control professionals the importance of implementing HC indicators in a strategic performance management system.This paper is organized as follows. In the first section, we review the literature on HCM, their link with performance, and their \"fit\" with strategy. Based on this review, our hypotheses are formulated within this first section. Next section describes the research method. Results are presented and discussed in the third section. Finally, we conclude the paper by reviewing its limitations and contribution, and by pointing out directions for future research.\nHCM: literature and hypotheses: HC and the development of HC metrics\nResearch method: Sample\nResults and discussion: To the extent that the three hypotheses are relatively independent, we are analyzing together the quantitative and qualitative results pertaining to each hypothesis.All the variables used in this study, except EFFI, have a non-normal distribution. This leads us to use nonparametric correlations (Spearman's Rho) to test our hypotheses. Findings are shown in Figure 1.The impact of the stage of implementation of HCM on performance\nConclusion: Given the critical roles that both HC and PMS play in value creation and achieving strategic objectives, the choice and implementation of HC measures has stimulated numerous research studies in several different management disciplines, in particular strategy, HR management and MACS. This study contributes to this cross-disciplinary effort by analyzing the links between HC measures, performance, and strategy, including the role played by HR managers.Our results show that, according to HR managers' perceptions, performance is positively associated to the stage of implementation of HCM. The development of HCM systems enable an organization to measure and, hopefully, to manage better its performance. The results also confirm that HR managers would like to develop their HC measures to be consistent with the strategy they perceived to be in place in their company. In companies following a differentiation strategy, HR managers are interested in HC indicators measuring employees' innovative capacities, whereas in cost-leader companies, HR managers prefer HC metrics measuring employees' ability to manage costs. This confirms the \"fit\" literature that maintains that PMS are aligned with strategy (Ittner et al., 2003). The literature about \"fit\" (or alignment) concerns primarily non-financial performance measures, and so can be extended more specifically to HCM.Thus, based on our results, we believe that HR professionals can contribute to create or customize strategic HC measures and implement them within the company's strategic performance measurement system to enhance performance. The more knowledge that HR professionals have about what HC enablers help implement strategy, the more they can focus on customizing HC measures aligned with strategy.However, as with many studies, this one has limitations. First, the sample is based on HR members of The Conference Board who may not be representative of all HR professionals. In addition, the sample includes some members having participated in a specific working group. Thus, randomness is not ensured and the external validity of our results cannot be guaranteed. Second, we collected quantitative data through a survey using self-reported measures. Although we were interested in HR managers' opinions, these self-reported measures may be biased. This may be a problem, in particular, for measures based on a single item. Third, as a consequence, our results are based on HR managers' perceptions. Further research using other managers' perceptions, as well as objective measures, are needed to extend our results to a more general level. Fourth, this study is cross-sectional and the correlations found should not be interpreted as cause-and-effect relations. For example, we measured performance over the three-year preceding the survey. A more interesting approach, and a direction for future research, would be to conduct a longitudinal study to observe whether the implementation of HCM leads to a subsequent improvement of performance. Fifth, we did not control for the specific impact of contingency factors. For example, research points to the importance of external factors, such as technology exhaustion and expansion beyond national markets, in the creation and performance of emergent innovative capabilities (Ahuja and Katila, 2004). On the other hand, Grant (1998) and Hamel and Prahalad (1994) emphasize internal factors, such as a company's historical development or its ability to bundle core competencies well. These external and internal factors could also be taken into account.Despite these limitations, this study makes several contributions. First, it underscores both to academics and professionals the critical role that HC measures play in delivering performance. While this contribution is based on HR professionals' perceptions, the results were corroborated with objective data on a sub-set of the sample. Efforts to develop PMS and frameworks such as the balanced scorecard should be maintained.The second contribution is to show that HR managers are clearly conscious that HC measures should be aligned with strategy. The message about the importance of \"fit\" between strategy and PMS has been absorbed. It remains to analyze in detail the cause and effect relationships between HC factors and strategic objectives. This analysis can be facilitated with tools such as strategy maps. Even if each company is unique and should have its own HC measures, general HCM configurations could help them create their HCM system faster.A third contribution is to demonstrate to both HR managers and MACS experts that they have a common interest to collaborate to implement HCM: the former with their knowledge of the various aspects of HC, and the latter with their experience in designing and implementing PMS. This necessary collaboration is illustrated with the following statement by our interviewees:Company P killed the dashboard because the HR community saw very little value added coming from it and a lot of extra work. If the dashboard is not designed with HR's view of where there are problems, they won't use it.Further research is needed to explore this area. One direction is to study how HR professionals, MACS experts, as well as business units managers work together to select and implement HCM. A longitudinal study would be an interesting approach to observe and understand better how these functions collaborate.Another direction for future research is to focus on those sub-groups which are most critical for a particular strategy. Huselid et al. (2005a), referring to \"A players for A positions\", suggest that HC strategy should be tailored to specific business strategy requirements so that it is possible to separate strategic value-creating elements of the workforce from the operational. They recommend that resources and HC metrics should be differentiated in keeping with this strategic/operational distinction.Additional cross-sectional studies, carried out on larger and more random samples of companies, are also needed, especially to identify the influence of external as well as internal contingency factors. They should also include objective measures of performance to analyze whether and under what conditions, the implementation of HCM is related to performance.In sum, there are still promising areas to study if we want to know more about how HCM are related to strategy and how they impact performance.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a survey and interviews with human resource (HR) professionals to identify and better understand their perceptions and expectations of human capital measures' (HCM) content, links to strategy, and impact on performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper relies on a quantitative analysis of survey questionnaires collected from 104 HR executives, as well as on a qualitative investigation using six interviews. Two types of HCM are derived using principal component analysis. One factor measures employees' work efficiency and cost consciousness (efficiency indicators), whereas the second factor measures employees' entrepreneurial and innovative capabilities (innovation indicators).\nFindings: - The results confirm the following hypotheses: first, according to HR managers, the more advanced a company is in the development of HCM, the higher the company's performance; and second, in companies following a differentiation strategy, HR managers are interested in innovation indicators, while in those following a cost reduction strategy, HR managers are interested in efficiency indicators.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Results are based on a cross-sectional study of HR professionals' perceptions. However, it underscores the critical role that HCM plays in delivering performance in the HR managers' opinion. It also shows that HR managers are conscious that HCM should be aligned with strategy.\nPractical implications: - Based on HR managers' perceptions, the paper suggests that HR professionals might invest more effort in creating and implementing their HCM to deliver higher levels of performance. It also implies that HR managers and management accounting and control systems experts have a common interest to collaborate when implementing HCM.\nOriginality/value: - The paper demonstrates the importance of implementing human capital (HC) metrics into a strategic performance management system to deliver performance from a company's HC. It contributes to a cross-disciplinary (HRs, management control, and strategy) perspective on HC strategy.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Understanding customer-perceived quality in informal stores	[ "Nigeria", "Collectivism", "Uncertainty avoidance", "Commercial friendship", "Customer-perceived quality", "Retail service quality (RSQ) model", "Word-of-mouth communication" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In Africa, as in many other underdeveloped settings, a great number of customers buy from informal retailers. The managerial press reports that in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), over 90 per cent of economic transactions in the retail sector are conducted through informal channels such as open-air markets and kiosks; moreover, this trend will persist for the foreseeable future (PwC, 2016). Put differently, retailing business is still dominated by the informal sector in almost all the countries in Africa including Nigeria.\nTheoretical background and hypothesis development: The collectivism-uncertainty avoidance cultural values and service encounters\nMethodology: This study uses partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) as its analytical toolbox. PLS-SEM, just like its counterpart covariance-based SEM (CB-SEM), has emerged as an important tool for testing complex relationships like mediation (Hair et al.,2017). At the same time, the operationalisation of CPQ as a higher-order makes PLS-SEM a valuable tool to use in this work particularly because it is easier to use when modelling formative measurement models in addition unlike CB-SEM it rarely suffers from model identification issues (Hair et al.,2017). Moreover since the key focus of this paper is on explaining the importance of CPQ to the building of CF and WoM, the use of PLS-SEM is deemed justifiable by seasoned scholars among whom Hair et al. (2017).\nResults: Assessment of the higher-order customer-perceived quality measure\nGeneral discussion and implications of the study: A major significance of this study is that it updates our understanding of the important notion of CPQ in the retail context. Unlike previous studies that have been overwhelmingly focussed on modern format retails stores, this study extends the notion of CPQ and the RSQ model underpinning it to the context of informal retail stores in SSA. This paper has therefore highlighted the importance of the RSQ model in analysing the multidimensional nature of CPQ in informal retail stores. In doing so, this paper offers empirical support to prior studies which describe the utility in measuring the multifaceted CPQ construct in retail stores environment using the parsimonious RSQ model (Martinelli and Balboni, 2012; Vazquez et al.,2001). As a result, the study has a clear implication, not only for our theoretical understanding of CPQ but also for informal merchants who are concerned about finding more practical ways of succeeding despite having very limited budget.\nStudy limitations and concluding thoughts: While this study has sought to unpack the understanding of the relationship between CPQ, CF and WoM communication, the research findings, however, need to be cautiously interpreted. One limitation of this study is that it was undertaken in one African country, meaning that the research evidence may be geographically limited and hence requires to be extended to other countries (on the continent). This is important if we are to develop a better understanding of the research issue we have explored in this context. Another limitation of this study is in the fact that the relationships tested here draw from a survey collected at a point in time; this makes it hard to infer causal relationships. To offset this limitation, future study may need to use, for example, longitudinal data.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Although customer-perceived quality (CPQ) has been studied for years, very little is known about the implications of CPQ to informal retail stores particularly in collectivist and high uncertainty avoidance societies like Nigeria. More specifically, this study aims to investigate the indirect implications of CPQ to post-purchase behaviour primarily word-of-mouth (WoM) communication which is even more critical for customer acquisition in the research context. By so doing, it develops a contextualised model in which the emerging concept of commercial friendship (CF) is incorporated to mediate the relationship between CPQ and WoM communication.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a survey-based design, data were gathered from 372 informal merchants' customers. Structural equation modelling technique primarily PLS-SEM (partial least squares structural equation modelling) was used in analysing the data.\nFindings: The data confirm that the multifaceted CPQ construct has an important implication for WoM through the mediation of CF. Supplementary analysis reveals that CF fully mediates one of the sub-components of CPQ, namely, personal interaction in relationship to WoM in addition to acting as a partial mediator between store policy, physical aspect and reliability and WoM.\nOriginality/value: The value of this study is that it draws attention to the special role that CF plays in the investigation of the relationship between CPQ and WoM communication in the research context. Additionally, it is a step towards extending and contextualising research about service quality perceptions and its outcomes in non-traditional Western contexts.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Are drivers of customer satisfaction different for buyers/users from different functional areas?	[ "Customer satisfaction", "Product reliability", "Product information", "Business‐to‐business marketing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\nIntroduction: A fundamental premise to the marketing concept is the notion of satisfying customers' needs. A satisfied customer is expected to enhance a firm's bottom line in multiple ways. Increased customer satisfaction generates positive word-of-mouth and brings in new customers to the firm (Zeithaml et al., 1996; Anderson et al., 1994). Also, it is widely accepted among researchers that customer satisfaction is a strong predictor of behavioral variables such as repurchase intentions and loyalty. There are many studies that highlight the importance of customer satisfaction for a firm's success and how customer satisfaction can be measured (Oliver, 1980; Keaveney, 1995; Youjae, 1993; Zeithaml et al., 1996), but most of these studies are limited to the area of business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing. It is difficult to make broad-based generalizations from B2C studies to business-to-business (B2B) contexts because there are many underlying differences between consumer buying (B2C) and organizational buying (B2B) behavior. Organizational buying is a complex process and involves many people from different functional areas, multiple goals and potentially conflicting decision criteria (Webster and Wind, 1972, Anderson et al., 1987). Previous research (Pingry, 1974; Strauss, 1962; Mast and Hawes, 1986) reported that different buying center members (such as engineers versus buyers) consider different factors as important in choosing an industrial supplier. For instance, Mast and Hawes (1986) reported that in selecting suppliers, purchase managers (buyers) consider discount more important than engineers. Similarly, Pingry (1974) reported that purchasing agents consider commercial characteristics of a supplier more important than do engineers. While these studies looked at customer needs at the point of supplier selection, our study looks at satisfaction with a supplier. Specifically, we explore customer satisfaction as a function of respondents' perceptions about a supplier and then relate the importance of these perceptions to respondents' primary functional areas.Most academicians and practitioners understand that enhanced customer satisfaction usually leads to increased customer retention, positive word-of-mouth, and higher profits (Fornell, 1992). Increased customer satisfactions also reduce the number of complaints and the costs of complaint handling. Measuring customer satisfaction and understanding the factors that drive satisfaction, can therefore help firms discover ways to improve product quality, which in turn may lead to increased competitive advantage (Cravens et al., 1988). Recent International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9000 changes also embrace customer satisfaction as a focus of the standard and require ISO 9000 certified companies to collect and analyze customer satisfaction data and use this information to improve organizational performance (Bond and Fink, 2003).Given the importance of customer satisfaction for a firm's long-term business survival and growth, monitoring customer satisfaction and diagnosing what factors drive customers' satisfaction should be an essential activity of every firm. Due to the complexity of organizational buying situations, it is likely that a purchase manager's satisfaction with a supplier may be driven more by one set of factors (such as those covering commercial aspects of a transaction), whereas the engineering manager's satisfaction with the same supplier may be driven more by another set of factors (such as those encompassing technical information about the product). If this conjecture is right, then it makes good business sense to emphasize different factors in communicating with organizational buyers based on their functional areas instead of taking a \"one shoe fits all\" approach. We believe that B2B sales people are already aware of such differences in the needs of different organizational buyers and use customized communications during the pre-sales period to uniquely appeal to different departments within the same firm (customer). However, we have not seen published studies that documented the fact that an organizational buyer's satisfaction is also differentially influenced by factors that relate systematically to the buyer's functional areas. We empirically demonstrate the existence of such systematic relationships in this study.\nTheoretical background: In B2C contexts, most of the customer satisfaction research has focused primarily on the \"disconfirmation of expectations\" model, which states that feelings of satisfaction arise when consumers' compare their perceptions of a product's performance to their expectations (Oliver, 1980). As per the marketing concept, any product should be considered as a \"total product\" that includes core benefits from the product as well as auxiliary dimensions associated with that product. The customer is satisfied when he/she feels that the product's performance is equal to or more than what was expected (confirmation). But if perceived performance falls short of his/her expectations (a negative disconfirmation), then the customer is dissatisfied (Oliver, 1980). This model is easy to apply in a B2C context, but may be difficult to adopt in B2B contexts. Research findings and theoretical discussions about consumer behavior often have little relevance for the industrial marketer (Webster and Wind, 1972). There are many underlying differences between B2C and B2B customer satisfaction. The most important difference is that the purchasing agent is different from the ultimate user of the product or service. Therefore the satisfaction with the purchase process across various departments of a customer may be an important consideration in organizational customer satisfaction (Tanner, 1996).In industrial marketing settings, the relationship between buyer and seller is frequently long-term, close, and involves a complex pattern of interaction between and within each company (Hakonsson, 1982). Customer satisfaction in industrial marketing should therefore be understood as relationship specific (Homburg and Rudolph, 2001). Although there is no single established method for measuring customer satisfaction (Zeithaml et al., 1990; Fornell, 1992), many studies follow three steps:1. determining the dimensions on which the products and services provided can vary;2. asking customers to rate their perceptions of the company on those dimensions; and3. asking customers for an overall satisfaction rating with the company (Perkins, 1993).The customers' overall satisfaction with the company's products and services is thought to be influenced by the customers' perceptions with each of the salient product component that forms the total product. Thus, the salient product components can be viewed as the drivers of overall satisfaction (Sharma et al., 1999; Rossomme, 2003).The product is the core of the exchange and, as a result, the characteristics of the product (price, product quality) are likely to have significant effects on an industrial relationship (Hakonsson, 1982). Because of the complexity of products in industrial marketing (Hutt and Speh, 2004), extensive technical documentation is frequently needed. Hence, perception of product-related information often emerges as a driver of customer satisfaction in a B2B context (Homburg and Rudolph, 2001). Services also play an important role in determining an industrial customer's satisfaction. This includes technical services such as maintenance, repair, and operation services (Jackson et al., 1995); financial services such as credit policy; and services that support the products and systems after delivery, including warranty coverage. Order handling and complaint handling are particularly important in B2B. Order handling includes order planning, order generation, order receipt and entry, scheduling, and fulfillment. This order handling eventually leads to delivery reliability and timely delivery to the customer. It is known that a majority of customers do not complain and that if they do the problem is usually very serious (Andreasen and Best, 1977). Thus, it is also important that a supplier respond adequately to any complaint and have an established policy to handle returns (Banting, 1984).While it is possible via literature review to identify broad generic issues (such as reliability, price, etc. as discussed above) that customers may consider important in B2B contexts, because of the diversity and complexity of products/services in B2B contexts, such issues need to be validated by conducting exploratory research with domain experts from the specific industry. Therefore, we conducted six in-depth interviews with customers of the sponsoring firm as well as four in-depth interviews with several managers from different functional areas of the sponsoring firm to develop the following list of issues that customers may consider important in determining their satisfaction with the firm's products and services:1. reliability of the supplier;2. adherence to delivery schedule;3. technical specifications for products;4. breadth of product line;5. competitive prices;6. credit policy;7. return policy; and8. warranty coverage.It seems that the above eight items can be reduced to three different dimensions, namely \"Reliability\" for the first two items (1 and 2), \"Product-related information\" for items 3 and 4, and \"Commercial aspects\" for items 5 to 8. We note that Homburg and Rudolph (2001) proposed similar dimensions. Based on the discussion earlier, we hypothesize that industrial buyers' perceptions for a supplier on the three dimensions will be positively related to their overall satisfaction with the suppler (see Figure 1):H1. Buyers' perceptions of \"reliability,\" \"product-related information\" and \"commercial aspects\" of a supplier will be positively related with overall satisfaction with the supplier.\nMethodology: Study context\nAnalyses and results: Analyses overview\nDiscussion: The increasing recognition of the significance of developing long-term relationships increases the importance of understanding customer satisfaction. This study highlights the complexity of customer satisfaction in B2B transactions and enhances our knowledge of factors affecting customer satisfaction in B2B contexts. Based on the review of academic literature and expert interviews, three factors were identified as drivers of overall customer satisfaction in a B2B context. Results supported the importance of these three drivers. Reliability emerged as the most important driver of satisfaction. Although commercial aspects and product-related information were found to be significant predictors for overall satisfaction, the importance of these two drivers in influencing satisfaction was found to differ between the respondents from different functional areas. For respondents from purchasing, management, and finance/accounting, \"product-related information\" was not important whereas for respondents from engineering, maintenance, and production, \"commercial aspects\" was not important.\nLimitations and future research: The study's cross-sectional design makes it difficult to establish causal relationships among the variables as it offers a static view of the relationships. A longitudinal study would help to overcome this limitation. Also, this study is based on customers' perceptions of and satisfaction with a supplier of hydraulic and pneumatic equipments. Therefore, the findings from this study need to be interpreted with caution as they may not generalize to other industries. Though we had a large sample, our response rate of 18.3 percent was only modest. While respondents and nonrespondents were found to be similar in terms of their characteristics, there remains a possibility of nonresponse bias.Another limitation of the study is the small number of items used for measuring the constructs. The number of questions in the survey was kept to a minimum in order to achieve a good response rate and better response quality. Though reliabilities of the three factors are reasonable, it would have been better to measure those factors with more items to make sure that we were tapping the whole domain of each construct properly. Future studies should try to achieve this and try to measure the constructs with more items. We were able to explain a significant amount of variance in overall satisfaction with the three factors, but it is possible that there are more factors that contribute to overall satisfaction in a B2B context. Future studies should look into these possibilities.\nManagerial implications: Measuring customer satisfaction is clearly important for any firm's long-term success. Our analysis shows that industrial customer satisfaction depends strongly on the purchase process rather than just the product itself. Perception of supplier reliability appears to be the most important factor in influencing customer satisfaction with a supplier. This result holds for all members of a buying center (buyer or user). This is perhaps intuitive for industrial customers because lack of supplier reliability may lead to unplanned downtime and the cost of downtime is usually high. An interesting outcome from this study is that on aggregate the average satisfaction with a supplier was found not to be significantly different regardless of the respondent's primary job functions. This corroborates prior findings by Qualls and Rosa (1995). However, that does not imply that it is not important to explicitly consider the primary job function of industrial buyers/users in marketing activities. Although aggregate satisfaction was not different, the importance of the drivers of satisfaction were indeed different depending on buyers'/users' primary job functions. This differential impact of the drivers of customer satisfaction based on industrial buyers'/users' job function that we uncovered in this study implies that to achieve best results, a supplier's communication with its buyers need to be customized to emphasize the right factors. For instance, a supplier would be better off emphasizing reliability and commercial aspects when communicating with buyers' purchase personnel. However, a supplier should emphasize reliability and product-related information in communicating with buyers' engineering department personnel. Given the deep knowledge that industrial suppliers often have about their buyers, it should be possible for the suppliers to use such customized marketing communications during post-sales that may in turn increase buyers' satisfaction with the supplier.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The aim of this study is to identify the drivers that influence customer satisfaction in a business-to-business context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A survey-based field study was conducted in which 1,068 business customers of a manufacturer of hydraulic and pneumatic equipment participated. Buyers/users reported their perceptions about and satisfaction with a supplier's product-related services.\nFindings: - Three drivers of customer satisfaction, reliability, product-related information, and commercial aspects, were identified. The importance of the last two drivers differed depending on the buyer's/user's primary functional area. For respondents from purchasing and management, commercial aspects were found to be more important than product-related information. For participants from engineering, maintenance, and production, product-related information was found to be more important than commercial aspects. The reliability driver emerged as the most important regardless of the functional association of respondents.\nOriginality/value: - The study results elucidate the differences between drivers of customer satisfaction for the buyers/users from different functional areas of an organization.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Reliability-based preventive maintenance strategies of road junction systems	[ "Preventive maintenance", "Failure mode effect analysis", "Reliability-centred maintenance", "Road junction", "Transport assets" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With advancement in computer technology and the ageing of many critical structures such as buildings, bridges, highway infrastructures, underground pipelines, offshore structures, hurricane protection barriers, mechanical structures, etc., renewed efforts can be seen in the areas of structural simulation, design (Shi and Tee, 2014), assessment, reliability (Mahmoodian et al., 2012; Tee et al., 2014; Fang et al., 2013) and maintenance (Liptrot and Palarchio, 2000; Tee and Li, 2011). Road junction systems not only account for high accident rates but also are considered originators of more than 70 per cent of traffic congestion. They handle more traffic than the individual roads leading to the road junction, and this is often increased by the lack of adequate road traffic management systems. This causes the situation to rapidly deteriorate to traffic snare with latter effects on the public and environments such as loss of productive man-hours, road traffic accidents and high environmental pollution. Road junction network owners and administrators, like other infrastructure owners, are continually considering all opportunities for trimming unnecessary expenses to reduce maintenance and operating costs. This is coupled with the ever-increasing pressure from road junction users for increased safety and reliability of journeys and the road authorities' strong desire to improve their safety record (Coupe and Greenwood, 2014).\n2. Maintenance: Maintenance is defined as a set of actions taken to ensure that systems or components provide their intended functions when required with a key objective for restoring or preserving reliability at minimum cost (S9081-AB-GIB-010, 2007). The key focus for maintenance is maintaining the intended function of the asset to ensure the availability of the function has been maintained at all time. The aim of carrying out a maintenance programme is to address the unsatisfactory conditions in which intended functions are not adequately been provided, often called functional failure. It is believed that the best short-, medium- and long-term strategies relating to the entire useful lifetime of an asset can be identified by a good maintenance management system which provides operators vital information and decision-making support (Cheng et al., 2008). Maintenance activities can be categorised into preventive maintenance (PM) and corrective maintenance as well as other different types and strategies, as shown in Table I.\n3. Reliability-centred maintenance: RCM is a technique that determines the maintenance requirement of a system and the intervals at which these are to be carried out in its operating context through a failure mode, effects and criticality analysis (CA) (Moubray, 1997). The term RCM as expressed by Nowlan and Heap (1978) is a programme designed to realise the inherent reliability capabilities of assets. It focuses on the functions and failures of the assets as well as identifies their consequences. It uses a standardised logical resolution procedure to implement preventive measures from these identified consequences. RCM techniques decide the required maintenance of a system while in its operating environment (Moubray, 1997). The asset management institute classifies RCM as a control that supports optimised management of physical assets (IAM, 2008). RCM combines different approaches to aid the development of a systematic maintenance programme to manage risks as a basis for maintenance decisions (Backlund, 2005). RCM framework focuses on preserving system functions, rather than preserving physical asset since it offers asset availability, reliability and maintainability. RCM has proven to be very beneficiary to several industries (USACERL, 1999; Park et al., 2011; Huo et al., 2005; Siqueira, 2004) because of its process analysis which is structured with definite tactic to determine optimal type of PM through a thorough analysis of functional failures, failure modes and failure causes (Rausand and Vatn, 2008).\n4. Case-based reasoning: CBR is a problem solving and learning approach which is used to solve the current problem considering prior experience gained from similar problems solved in the past. In the CBR terminology, a previous situation, which has been captured and learned in a way that it can be reused in the solving of future problems, is referred to as a past case, previous case, stored case or retained case. Similarly, a new case or unsolved case is the description of a new problem to be solved (Aamodt and Plaza, 1994).\n5. Road junction transport asset analysis: Ageing of systems and the need for digital asset database are some of the key importance of the AM discipline. The context of AM is imperative for optimisation of the highway infrastructure as it implements key decisions for the design, operation, maintenance, inspection, renewal enhancement and disposal of these physical assets to deliver safe and economic infrastructure. AM is essential for continuous availability of the road junction assets as its discipline integrates maintenance and replacement analysis with economics and system failure analysis (Remenyte-Prescott and Andrews, 2013). A road junction system in Niger Delta Region of Nigeria, called Enerhen road junction, is considered in the case study. The road junction is newly constructed, thereby having no previous maintenance records. Unlike the UK and other developed countries where the actual operating history and techniques for dealing with maintenance uncertainties are understood, Nigeria road transport industries, though carry out maintenance still maintain highway assets on the run to failure and corrective maintenance style.\n6. Discussion: The dearth of deterrence of failure always leads to a rise in the cost and benefit ratio about both the individual maintenance intervention and a group of interventions relating to the network of infrastructure. After maintenance task selection, RCM logic decision proposes various maintenance strategies that would be carried out in cyclic, routine and reactive manner. As shown in Table II, FMEA of road junction asset precedes decision logic in which FMEA spots underlying hazards, and the latter assigns a critical value which facilitates criticality class selection. It is important to carry out a CA as it is the best way to evaluate how asset failures impact system performance to analytically grade assets for the intention of maintenance prioritisation and reliability improvement initiatives (Ray, 2010; Sinha, 2015). Before choosing criticality class for the assets, failure effects are classified as for how they affect safety and environment (A), user mission (B), other failures (C) and hidden failures (D). For example, if the failure affects the safety of road user which could lead to loss of life, then it is classified as high priority. Tables VII-XVI for the investigated asset presents the results of decision logic tree analysis.\n7. Conclusions: The RCM has been presented by establishing a qualitative relationship between the functional failure of asset and maintenance strategy. Results from the case study show that how the FMEA and decision logic method can be used to propose different PM strategies based on the eight critical questions, which include the impact of PM measure on system reliability. Furthermore, the study shows that the RCM method can be performed and supported by real input data. Periodic maintenance and reliability development are an intricate problem, and substantial updates of real input data are required to enhance the RCM method. The application of PM principles will help to decrease the number of failures and inadvertent stops with directing resources for timely detection of a failure in high-impact assets.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a study of reliability-centred maintenance (RCM), which is conducted on the key sub-assets of a newly constructed road junction infrastructure in Nigeria.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The classical RCM methodology, a type of RCM, which has a top down, zero-based approach for maintenance analysis, is implemented in this study.\nFindings: The implementation of the classical RCM is successful in its application of various PM policies assigned to the assets and it shows that its application in the highway industry could reduce excessive maintenance backlog and frequent reactive maintenance by effective optimisation of its preventive maintenance (PM) intervals.\nPractical implications: Road junctions are originators of more than 70 per cent of road traffic congestion and account for high accident rate. The traditional methods of reliability assurance used in the highway industry such as reactive maintenance and routine maintenance are often inadequate to meet the round the clock usage demands of these assets, thus the consideration for the application of a systematic RCM process for maintaining the system function by selecting and applying effective PM tasks.\nOriginality/value: It uses an approach that critically develops and analyses thoroughly preventive and continuous maintenance strategy in a new circumstance with environment of uncertainty and limited operating data. The case-based reasoning cycle has been applied in the RCM approach with real-time data obtained from a UK-based network maintenance management system for highway infrastructures.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Do negative acts in Italian academia have a quadratic relationship with determinants of health?	[ "Workplace bullying", "University", "Academia", "Negative Acts Questionnaire – Revised" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the past 25 years, the construct of bullying has attracted growing attention from researchers and practitioners, and today appears to be more consolidated. Indeed, researchers finally found an agreed definition of the phenomenon (Einarsen et al., 2011). In addition, meta-analytic and longitudinal studies accumulated evidence confirming workplace bullying as a widespread and serious problem of organizational life. Workplace bullying is, in fact, defined as: \"harassing, offending, socially excluding someone or negatively affecting someone's work tasks. In order for the label bullying (or mobbing) to be applied to a particular activity, interaction or process it has to occur repeatedly and regularly (e.g. weekly) and over a period of time (e.g. about six months). Bullying is an escalating process, during the course of which the person confronted ends up in an inferior position and becomes the target of systematic negative social acts. A conflict cannot be called bullying if the incident is an isolated event or if two parties of approximately equal 'strength' are in conflict\" (Einarsen et al., 2011, p. 15).\nObjectives: The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of workplace bullying among university workers in in an academic institution in Southern Italy.\nMaterial and method: Participants\nInstruments: The 17-item reduced version of the NAQ-R (Giorgi et al., 2011) was utilized. The authors have pointed out that this questionnaire has acceptable reliability and validity. In addition, the participants completed the Italian version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-12 (Fraccaroli et al., 1991).\nProcedure: An on-line administration procedure was chosen in which participants were able to access a web page (www.sarduspro.com/ leftest/) with detailed information about the study, such as the instruments used, the privacy and personal data, usability, etc.\nStatistical analysis: Descriptive statistics (percentages, means, standard deviations (SD)) were calculated.\nResults: In line with the requirement of Mikkelsen and Einarsen (2001), the prevalence of workplace bullying was calculated. Bullying prevalence was contained and appeared to be below average: 10.1 percent. Bullying in academia institution seemed to be not so widespread, especially compared with the prevalence of 16.4 percent found in a study conducted among 12 Italian organizations (Giorgi, 2009) and with the 15.2 percent found among 25 organizations in Italy (Giorgi et al., 2011).\nDiscussion: The present study, in light of several studies that analyzed the quality of working life in the university context (McKay et al., 2008), provided original and counterintuitive results that, however, support the relationship between negative acts and mental health.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the prevalence of workplace bullying in an Italian university.\nDesign/methodology/approach: More than 200 workers have completed the Italian version of the Negative Acts Questionnaire and the General Health Questionnaire.\nFindings: The results show a spread of low to medium negative actions in the specific setting. In addition, the effects of negative actions on health are less serious than believed by most of the studies on workplace bullying.\nOriginality/value: In particular, a quadratic regression model appears to be more appropriate than a linear model.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Bridging or buffering? The impact of schools' adaptive strategies on student achievement	[ "Organizational theory", "Educational institutions", "Community relations", "Strategic management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Those who fall in love with practice without science are like a sailor who enters a ship without helm or compass, and who never can be certain whither he is going (Leonardo da Vinci)\nConceptual framework: Open system theory notes that organizations are inextricably linked to environmental elements (Scott, 2003). As open systems, schools take in resources from the environment, process them in certain ways, and produce outputs. Schools are interdependent with their environments and school people are a part of those environments (Weick, 1995). As a result, school people contribute to the constraints and opportunities of their environments. Environments supply the materials and ingredients of which schools are composed. However, in order to access these resources, schools need legitimacy. In interviews with principals, Johnson and Fauske (2000) found that school leaders are particularly attentive to issues of legitimacy in relation to their environments. The environment significantly affects organizational performance, which in turn affects subsequent perceptions and decisions (Pfeffer and Salancik, 1982; Scott, 2003). The perceptions of organizational participants concerning potential environmental opportunities and threats influence their strategies and choices of behaviors (Weick, 1995).Schools and their environments\nMethods: Organizational theory should not be simply the playground for scholars and theorists, but should serve as a guide to practice for school leaders. An understanding of systems theories can provide strategic options for school leaders as they scan and strategize to interface with their environments. In using theory instead of intuition or past practice to interpret the environment, a principal has a better chance of selecting strategies that will have a positive impact on student achievement. Principals and other school leaders need guidance as to which theories provide the most useful advice as to coping with the environments of their schools. This study was conducted to test the competing strategies of bridging and buffering and their relationship to student achievement.Sample of schools\nResults: Bridging and buffering strategies are separate constructs, not two ends of a single continuum. They function independently of one another. This was evident in the finding that the use of buffering strategies and bridging strategies were not correlated for the schools in this study. That is, the extent to which a school engaged in one of these strategies had no predictive power as to the extent to which it used the other. A school might be high in both bridging and buffering, that is, it builds bridges to helpful elements in the parent community and seeks to include them but at the same time is able to withstand the attempted influence of disruptive elements in the community. It could also be high in bridging but low in the buffering or the reverse, low bridging and high buffering. Finally, a school might not be successful in either bridging or buffering in its relationship to parents and community members, so that positive parents and community members who share the schools goals are not brought into relationship in meaningful ways and disruptive parents have a great deal of influence.There was a difference in the relationship between the use of buffering and bridging strategies and student outcomes. Buffering was uncorrelated with math achievement and was only moderately correlated with English achievement (r=0.31, p<0.05). Bridging, however, was more strongly correlated with both math and English achievement (r=0.64 and 0.63, respectively, p<0.01). See Table I for details.Multiple Regression Analysis\nDiscussion and implications: School leaders need to engage in both bridging and buffering strategies to have effective schools. But they must make choices as to investment of time and energy in executing these strategies in relation to parents and the community. Whether guided by rational systems theory, myth, or past practice, buffering strategies seem to be the most commonly employed by school administrators. Results from the study of schools in our sample suggest that being guided by open systems theory and investing greater energy and resources in bridging strategies will positively impact student achievement. While a certain amount of buffering may be necessary to prevent disruption to the core teaching and learning tasks of a school, a school that is too successful at keeping parents and other community members from influencing its policies and directions may ultimately pay a price in student learning. Schools that build positive connections with their communities through bridging strategies are more likely to achieve their goal of fostering student learning.Our findings should be interpreted in light of the limitations of our methods. The inclusion of schools that declined to participate in this study may have influenced our findings if they varied in a systematic way from the schools we studied. In addition, our data were based on the perceptions of teachers concerning their school's relations to their environments and the behaviors of their principals in that regard. Other measures of schools' interactions with their external environments may have produced differing results.Organizational theory is not constructed only for residents of the \"ivory tower.\" The theories taught and promoted in school leadership preparation programs and disseminated through mentoring and other more informal learning avenues shape the way in which school leaders make sense of the complex world of schools. Theories do in fact guide our thinking as to what to pay attention to and how to interpret the events around us. It is important to test our theories through research so that outdated or unhelpful theories can be replaced with those that have been found to be more successful and useful.Guided by the norms of the rational systems perspective, principals often view the environment as hostile and potentially disruptive to the attainment of school goals. As a result, they have buffered their schools from the influences of parents and community members by employing tactics that exclude parents and community members and limit their ability to impact the school program. When guided by open systems theory however, principals view the elements of their external environment quite differently. They recognize the interdependence that schools share with their environments and the uncertainty within those environments makes increasing coordination and information flow the prudent course, thereby creating a symbiotic interdependence. This dependence on the external environment for resources and support creates a milieu in which alliances are critical for goal attainment and even survival. As a consequence, they build bridges and attempt to forge alliances with parents and community members. These competing theories impact the behaviors of principals in contrasting ways and shape their attitudes about their external environments.Hence, depending on the guiding theory, schools employ both bridging and buffering strategies as they interface with their environments (Ogawa, 1996). Realistically, principals must engage in both buffering and bridging strategies. They must protect the teaching-learning process from disruptive elements in the external environment. They lock school doors, institute sign-in procedures, and run interference for teachers who are in conflict with parents. Likewise, all principals must, to some degree, engage in bridging activities with parents and communities. They attend PTA meetings, schedule parent-teacher conferences and back-to-school nights, and sponsor public student performances. Given the time constraints and complexities of having multiple constituencies, principals have to make choices as to where to invest their energies. Both open and rational systems perspectives provide useful guidance to principals. Buffering strategies are most appropriate when external environmental elements intend to disrupt the functioning of the school. However, our data suggest that bridging strategies are more effective when it comes to fostering student learning. These strategies enable the principal to forge alliances and garner the resources and support of external elements that have congruent goals and benefit from the work of the school.This study was conducted within a particular context - schools within one of the United States of America. Although the sampling methods do not allow generalization beyond the population of schools within that state, they raise important questions for schools across a broader context. The results of this study suggest that the behavior of school leaders is influenced by the theories, both formal and informal, that they have assimilated during their preparation programs and early years in the field. More research needs to be done in other contexts to test the utility of buffering and bridging strategies. If the results found here hold up in other cultures and contexts, both in the USA and other countries and regions of the world, then those who prepare school leaders and provide professional development training ought to emphasize open systems theory that encourages bridging strategies.\nConclusions: As in most things, a good balance is key: parents and community members have the potential to be assets, as long as they can be enlisted to support the school goals for student achievement and development. Our study indicates that theories that guide school leaders to view parents and community members as potential resources and to build bridges to productively engage these people in the work and life of the school are more likely to help them achieve their goal of fostering student learning.A knowledge and understanding of both rational and open systems theories is an important component of a principal's toolbox. But theories that guide school leaders to see all parents and other community members as threatening elements of the environment and consequently that lead schools to develop strong and effective buffering strategies to keep them at bay may not be the most useful. If further research across a variety of contexts confirms our findings, then open systems theory, that encourages bridging strategies, appears to be the more productive when it comes to fostering student achievement.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Rational and open system theories offer divergent sets of tactics on how best to deal with factors outside the boundary of the school. This study compared two competing strategies that emerge from these theories: bridging and buffering. The impact of how schools interact with their environments was examined in relation to student achievement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The competing theories were operationalized into two survey measures that tapped teacher perceptions of their schools' orientations toward the environment. Using schools as the unit of analysis, two competing perspectives were contrasted together with their relative impact on student achievement on standardized tests.\nFindings: - Multiple regression was used to assess the relative weight of each of these constructs in explaining the variance in student achievement. Bridging strategies explained a greater proportion of the variance than buffering.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Data were limited to teacher perceptions of the strategies employed by their schools to relate to the external environments. Enactments of these strategies are generally conceived and initiated by school administrators. Schools are dependent on their environments for survival. If the community is perceived as a threat, school leaders will attempt to insulate the technical core of teaching by buffering teachers from environmental disturbances. If, however, the community is perceived as a potential resource, school leaders will attempt to build bridges and create a symbiotic interdependence. Findings suggest that the latter is a more productive strategy for school administrators to employ.\nOriginality/value: - To date, little research has been done on these competing strategies that would guide the practice of school leaders in how to best invest their energies in relation to their external environments.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Spillover of diet changes on intentions to approach healthy food and avoid unhealthy food	[ "Health promotion", "Nutrition", "Intentions", "Diet", "Eating", "Eating behaviour", "Healthy food", "Unhealthy food" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The promotion of healthier eating is a high-priority issue in public health policies. Numerous campaigns have been set up in an attempt to get the population to change their diet in a healthier direction. Due to financial limitations but also to the fact that people will more readily attempt to change particular behaviours (e.g. to eat more fruit) than to embark on broader behavioural changes (e.g. to install a general dietary change, such as a simultaneous and coordinated change in the consumption of multiple food and beverage categories), most campaigns for healthy eating have limited scopes (Evans et al., 2008). Campaigns for healthier eating typically aim to decrease or increase the intake of a particular food category, and if effects are evaluated at all, this is usually only done in the time span of the campaign. Nonetheless, promoters of healthy eating often seem to assume that the result of their endeavours spill over, both into the future as well as to non-targeted behaviours, with wider effects that are conducive to the broader societal objectives behind the campaign (van Kooten et al., 2007).\nMethods: While adolescent obesity often is related to overconsumption of soft drinks (van Kooten et al., 2007), the illnesses from which older people suffer, e.g., coronary diseases, are typically caused by eating too much fat (Lawton, 1983). While both studies to be reported here focused on an increased intake of fruit and vegetables, the older adult study in addition concerned a reduction in the intake of animal fats whereas the adolescent study concerned a decrease in the consumption of soft drinks.\nResults: The average age of the adolescent and older adult samples was 14 and 61 years, respectively. In both the adolescent and older adult samples females were slightly over-represented (57 and 61 per cent, respectively). In neither of the two samples were there significant differences between males and females as regards satisfaction with health, food-related life, and spillover effects.\nDiscussion: For the 2,120 Danes aged 13-15 and 55-70 studied here, the results show that previous attempts (whether successful or not) to increase the intake of fruit and vegetables and to decrease the intake of animal fats and soft drinks generally had a positive influence on future intentions to maintain and expand these behaviours. It is remarkable that attempts with approach and avoidance behaviours positively affected not only the intention to attempt the same but also the other type of behaviour in the future. It is also interesting that the effect of experience on intention is similar for adolescents and older adults. The only exception regards the impact of avoidance experience on approach behaviours, where the successful triers' intentions differ significantly from those of the unsuccessful triers in the study with adolescents but not in the study with older adults.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe two exploratory studies of how experience (lacking, failed, or successful) of trying to implement healthy eating behaviours influences future intentions to maintain and expand such behaviours (so called \"spillover\").\nDesign/methodology/approach: The two survey-based (n=2,120) studies involved Danes aged 13-15 and 55-70 years, respectively.\nFindings: The studies showed that the self-reported experience of successfully increasing the intake of healthy (fruit and vegetables) and decreasing the intake of less healthy (soft drinks and animal fats) categories had spillover effects on the intention to pursue these behaviours in the future. For all the categories included, the intentions of the respondents who had tried and succeeded were significantly higher than those of the other respondents. The intentions of the group who had tried but failed were also significantly higher compared to those of the non-triers. Moreover, whether successful or not, both the experience of trying to increase the intake of healthy and to reduce the intake of less healthy food had a significant positive influence on the intention to try the opposite type of behaviour in the future. Healthy (fruit and vegetables) and decreasing the intake of less healthy (soft drinks and animal fats) categories had spillover effects on the intention to pursue these behaviours in the future. For all the categories included, the intentions of the respondents who had tried and succeeded were significantly higher than those of the other respondents. The intentions of the group who had tried but failed were also significantly higher compared to those of the non-triers. Moreover, whether successful or not, both the experience of trying to increase the intake of healthy and to reduce the intake of less healthy food had a significant positive influence on the intention to try the opposite type of behaviour in the future.\nOriginality/value: As regards spillover between approach and avoidance behaviours related to healthy eating, only few studies have been published. The studies reported here contribute to the understanding of how experience with different types of healthy eating affect future intentions to change eating habits and provides insight for health promoters in their choice of which specific eating behaviours to address.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Internal mechanism of brand app recommendation from the integrated cross-channel perspective: Evidence from the airline industry	[ "Involvement", "Satisfaction", "E-service", "Partial least squares", "Cross-channel", "Usability", "Recommendation", "Brand app" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: As users gradually get used to obtaining products and services on mobile-end devices, service organizations have started putting significant resources into developing and promoting brand apps, which are apps developed by organizations that feature the relevant organization's brand logo and icon (Bellman et al., 2011). Service organizations deem brand apps' operation as an important marketing strategy on mobile-end devices and use them as an extensional channel of promotion, service and information provision and product sales (Zhao and Balague, 2015).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 VSL framework\n3. Research model and hypotheses development: App usability refers to the degree to which an app can achieve users' specific goals in a specific context effectively, efficiently and satisfactorily (Venkatesh and Ramesh, 2006). According to the definition, app usability must meet three conditions: First, users can achieve their specific goals through the app. Second, users can achieve these goals effectively and efficiently. Third, users feel satisfied with the service obtained. This service obtained from brand apps can be divided into two tightly connected parts: the first part is the service related to the experience of app use, such as service provision, input design and user interface design. The second part is the service related to the offline experience that is obtained or purchased from the brand app. Either part can influence app usability. Given the condition that the offline service experience is bad, the aforementioned third condition of app usability is not satisfied. Even worse, customers may not intend to purchase the offline service from any service channel included in the brand app. As a result, the brand app loses its usability.\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Sample\n5. Discussion and implications: 5.1 Discussion of results\n6. Conclusion: The current study explores the influencing factors of brand app recommendation in the cross-channel context. We find two important variables to reflect brand apps' characteristics: offline service satisfaction and brand app usability. Based on the involvement theory, we find that brand app satisfaction and usability positively affect customer involvement, seeing them as a personal factor and a physical factor, respectively. Moreover, brand app usability significantly affects brand app satisfaction, which conforms to the VSL framework. Finally, customer involvement and brand app satisfaction lead to brand app recommendation. The current study makes both theoretical and practical contributions. From the theoretical perspective, this research distinguishes brand apps from ordinary apps, fills the gap in the internal mechanism of brand app recommendation, and analyzes users' recommendation of brand apps from an integrated perspective by considering the online, offline, physical and psychological factors. For practical implications, we make suggestions to increase brand app recommendation by improving users' satisfaction with offline service and brand app usability.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Many service organizations use brand apps as an important mobile-end service channel and expect to increase brand app use through customer recommendations. The purpose of this paper is to explore the internal mechanism of brand app recommendation from the cross-channel perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on value-satisfaction-loyalty (VSL) framework, this study examines how brand app's unique cross-channel features influence customer recommendations, and the effect of involvement in the framework. The authors conduct a research survey in airline industry and questionnaires are developed and distributed to respondents who have experiences with air travel and have used the corresponding airlines' brand apps. Finally, the authors collect 399 valid questionnaires to test the research model.\nFindings: The results show that brand app usability mediates the relationship between offline service satisfaction and brand app satisfaction, which finally leads to brand app recommendation. Brand app usability and satisfaction significantly affect involvement, which also lead to brand app recommendation.\nOriginality/value: This study distinguishes the features of brand apps from those of ordinary apps and fills the research gap in the internal mechanism of app recommendation from the integrated cross-channel perspective. Besides, this study extends the VSL value in the context of brand app use. Based on the results, this study also provides the practical suggestions of enhancing offline service quality and brand app usability to increase brand app recommendation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Guest Editorial	[ "Apprenticeships", "Society", "World economy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Editing a special issue on apprenticeship has been an exciting and challenging experience for us. Apprenticeship forms an important part of post-compulsory education and training systems in many countries across the world. The study of apprenticeship is a truly cross-disciplinary endeavour, as elements of the disciplines of education, sociology, industrial relations, management and developmental psychology are all involved. Perhaps for this reason - the complexity of the field and the need for mastery of such a range of areas - there are relatively few academic researchers into apprenticeship. And yet it is a vital area of government strategies in a range of areas: typically departments of education, employment, youth affairs and industrial relations are all involved. In some countries, government departments at national, state/county and local level have roles to play.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Presents the special issue, which aims to explore some of the challenges that the apprenticeship system faces in different countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Introduces the papers of nine authors/author teams.\nFindings: - States that the special issue makes it clear that apprenticeship will survive and continue as a means of learning and as an institution retaining the support and investment of governments.\nOriginality/value: - Introduces a useful issue on the subject of apprenticeships and their effect on societies and economies all over the world.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Managing paradoxes, dilemmas, and change: A case study to apply the Yin Yang wisdom in Western organizational settings	[ "Case study", "Yin Yang", "Cross-cultural challenge", "Cultural paradox", "Culture dilemma", "National and organizational culture" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper presents an embedded case study aiming to investigate whether organizational and national cultures mutually influence each other, how they do so, and how this process of reciprocal learning may encourage organizations and individuals to balance cultural paradoxes and manage cultural dilemmas. For this study, Yin Yang, an East Asian wisdom, is adopted as the lens through which Western national and organizational cultures are examined. More specifically, the Yin Yang worldview and epistemological system (Fang, 2012; Li, 2016) is found to be the most appropriate system with which to make sense of cultural learning and to reframe the paradox that originates from the coexistence of apparently opposite values and behaviors. The Chinese philosophical tradition of Yin Yang supports the reconciliation of \"opposing voices\" (Chen, 2002). Instances of these \"opposing voices\" can be found in nature, as well as in most human expressions, allowing the Yin Yang thinking to be applied to the study of various phenomena across multiple disciplines. For example, the relationship between males and females has been explained as one in which opposites complete each other: male having more Yang qualities (being more assertive and protective) and female having more Yin qualities (being more conciliatory and nurturing) (Ortner, 1972). Food consumption has also been looked at through Yin Yang lenses: following the Yin Yang philosophy, foods can be divided into more Yin or more Yang. Yin foods tend to be refreshing and to provide water to the body; Yang foods have heating and drying properties. By eating both types of these opposite foods, people can make sure to have optimal balance in their bodies, and, ultimately, good health (Ludman and Newman, 1984). This principle of the union of the opposites is very useful when applied to the study of business organizations, as the case study object of this study exemplifies.\nExploring Western cultures through the lens of East Asian wisdom: Over the past few years, interest in East Asian philosophical wisdom as inspiration for theory building to cope with the increasing paradoxes in today's globalized business world has been on the rise (Fang, 2012; Fang et al., 2017; Li, 2012; Luo and Zheng, 2016; Mattsson and Tidstrom, 2015, to mention a few). Western literature does not adequately comprehend East Asia's traditions, approaches, and performance. For example, it was only recently established that when competitiveness and workforce performance are compared (Asia vis-a-vis the \"West\"), three Western countries (Germany, the UK, the USA) cluster together with significantly lower performance levels than China and South Korea (Baumann, Hamin, Tung, and Hoadley, 2016). In education, the East Asian cluster (China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and so on) again significantly outperforms Western and other clusters (Baumann and Krskova, 2016). East Asian philosophies are arguably the drivers of such strong performances. Among the East Asian ideologies, philosophies and other elements of wisdom, Yin Yang is considered as the worldview and epistemological system that can best foster an understanding of recent phenomena by reframing the notions of paradox, opposites, and balance (Fang, 2012; Li, 2016; Luo and Zheng, 2016).\nMethodology: We adopted a cross-case analysis in order to explore the dialogical complexity of organizational and individual behaviors depending on situation, context, and time. This methodology is considered suitable for the purposes of this study for three main reasons. First, cross-case analysis allows researchers to compare cases from one or more settings, communities, or groups to observe formal and informal processes within an organization, and permits them to collect a vast array of data (Hartley, 1994). Second, it enables researchers to accumulate case knowledge, compare and contrast cases, and in doing so, produce new knowledge (Khan and VanWynsberghe, 2008). This provides opportunities to learn from different cases and gather critical evidence. Third, the cases play a supportive role, facilitating the understanding of specific issues, when conducting exploratory research on complex social phenomena in real-life contexts (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 2014). Case study methodology (Yin, 2014) is useful in providing an in-depth understanding of a specific context, with the focus being on analytical (the findings specific to the research context) rather than statistical generalizations. In our analysis, we acknowledged the discipline-specificity of business case studies, as advocated by Piekkari et al. (2009), who highlight the importance of a descriptive, pluralistic and dynamic view. Cultural dynamics and cross-cultural research literature guided us in the formulation of the RQs.\nResearch data: We used multiple sources of evidence in order to address a broad range of contextual, attitudinal, and behavioral issues (Yin, 2014): interviews, field observations, and internal document analyses. This allowed us to ensure the validity and reliability of the data, thereby increasing the probability of our findings being credible (Lincoln and Guba, 1985).\nMethod of analysis: For analysis we followed the four-step method of Miles and Huberman (1994): within-case analysis, data reduction, cross-case analysis, and conclusion drawing/verification. A meta-matrix based on the three categories of situation, context, and time (Fang, 2012) was displayed in order to provide a more systematic visualization and comparison of all the units of analysis at once. We also relied on the recommendation by Piekkari and Welch (2011) and Welch et al. (2011) to consider diversity and plurality in case study design to allow researchers to go beyond the dominant implicitly positivistic North American approach to conducting qualitative case study.\nFindings: Table II shows the data collected through multiple sources of evidence via a meta-matrix. The data allowed us to obtain a comprehensive picture of how integrating and learning from other cultures and sets of values leads organizations and individuals to deal with cultural paradoxes and manage cultural dilemmas. The three categories of situation, context, and time (Fang, 2012) were used for both data analysis and presentation, and, for each of them, data sources were indicated. Data from meetings, internal documentation, public documents, interview transcripts, and participant observations were thereby triangulated to form a detailed and valid understanding of the dialogical complexity of organizational and individual behaviors depending on situation, context, and time. Each of the categories shown in Table II is discussed separately below to elaborate on the findings. For the sake of clarity, it is important to highlight that in Table II the hollow bullet points represent specific paradoxes encountered by the companies, while the solid bullet points describe the initiatives adopted by the companies to balance paradoxes.\nContrasting voices that call for further research over time: Embracing a dynamic view of culture and cultural learning, the section above has illustrated how the case organizations balance cultural paradoxes by integrating and learning from seemingly opposite sets of values given particular situation, context, and time. The findings discussed above appear to confirm that cross-cultural learning can work to manage cultural dilemmas and lead to greater effectiveness in the specific settings one operates in. Despite this, contrasting findings emerged from the data as well, suggesting the need for further research.\nConclusion: This paper has described a cross-case analysis of four subsidiaries of an Italian insurance MNC drawing on the Eastern epistemological system of Yin Yang balancing (Li, 2016; Luo and Zheng, 2016) and on the Yin Yang theory of culture with three parameters (situation, context, time) (Fang, 2005-2006, 2012) that guide the selection and exhibition of value orientations. More specifically, the paper has attempted to respond to the following RQ:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Drawing on Fang's (2012) Yin Yang theory of culture while taking up the roadmap proposed by Li (2016) for applying the epistemological system of Yin Yang balancing to complex issues in management research, in general, and to paradoxical issues, in particular, the purpose of this paper is to explore how organizations and individuals in the West can balance cultural paradoxes and manage culture dilemmas through the lens of Yin Yang wisdom.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a qualitative case study. Data are gathered through interviews, documents, and field observations in four subsidiaries of an Italian insurance multinational corporation and were analyzed according to the three parameters, i.e., situation, context, and time (Fang, 2012).\nFindings: The findings show how the integration and learning from seemingly opposite cultures and sets of values lead the organization and individuals to balancing cultural paradox and managing cultural dilemma effectively. With regard to situation, the authors find that both organizations and customers choose the most relevant value(s) to take advantage of specific events or circumstances, and that different value orientations can coexist. As for context, the authors show that organizations can adapt their values either through suppression and/or promotion, which can foster individuals to find new balancing within the paradox. In terms of time, the authors show that the process of learning from other cultures over time can play a role in the shift of people's and organizations' choices of attitudes and value orientations.\nOriginality/value: The paper suggests the relevance and usefulness of adopting Yin Yang wisdom to uncover the dynamic process of cultural learning in Western scenarios.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Linking servicescape to customer satisfaction: exploring the role of competitive strategy	[ "Customer satisfaction", "Customer services quality", "Service strategy", "Competitive strategy", "Empirical research", "Servicescape" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Historically, the literature on management of services has been built on a foundation derived from the literature in the operations management field, with contributions from several other important disciplines such as services marketing (Rust et al., 2000; Zeithaml et al., 1993) and human resources (Oliva and Stemann, 2001; Rust, 2004). While efforts have been made to extend the literature on service operations beyond these roots (Bowen and Lawler, 1992; Ordanini and Parasuraman, 2011), what has largely prevailed are perspectives with a \"service twist\" that modify and/or extend seminal operations management typologies and taxonomies (Larsson and Finkelstein, 1999). These extensions typically echo the interplay between desired efficiency, flexibility, and the contingencies of the marketplace broadly highlighted by Hayes and Wheelwright (1979) in their work on the Product/Process Matrix. Similar adaptations of manufacturing ideas have brought to the forefront such considerations as customer interaction (Chase, 1978; Chase, 1988; Mills et al., 1983), the productivity consequences of variation in service outputs (Schmenner, 1986, 2004), and the payoff accompanying specialization among and repetition by service delivery personnel (Collier and Meyer, 1998; Alexandrov et al., 2007).\nLiterature review: Common to both the service operations and strategic management literatures are categorization schemes that create frameworks useful in organizing services or strategies. In the service operations literature, the frameworks generally emerge from the interplay between desired efficiency, throughput, and customer variation and the amount of each that can be reasonably accommodated. In the main, they do not take the firm's strategy into account (Spring and Araujo, 2009). Strategy typologies, on the other hand, focus on firm competitive actions and provide insight as to how a particular firm within a larger industry manifests various combinations of unique and standard characteristics in support of their inimitable competitive position. While broadly useful in understanding competitive strategies, they do not generally explain how various service characteristics may or may not support particular competitive approaches. In the pages that follow, we review the broad lines of current service typologies and meld them with the insights of strategy archetypes. This allows for the development and testing of hypothesis that follow the spirit of the recent call for \"focused interdisciplinary research\" on the science of service (Ostrom et al., 2010).Service typologies\nMethodology: The choice of sample selection and methodology was driven by the nature of the three hypotheses to be tested in this study. Since the model involves both identification of company strategy and customer perceptions of servicescape and satisfaction, two sampling frames are required. These include the identification of companies and customers of those companies. The selection of the sample for each is discussed below in turn.Sample selection\nAnalysis: Of the 1,467 questionnaires received, a total of 1,287 (87.7 percent) provided complete responses to the relevant items. This subset of the overall response was reasonably well distributed across the three service sectors, with 463 responses from consumer electronics retailing, 490 from general merchandise retailing, and 334 in prepared foods. Demographic data were analyzed to determine if they had any significant association with the variables of interest, and no significant results were found. Table II provides a statistical overview of the variables used in this research.Prior to testing our hypotheses, we evaluated our predictor measures with regard to reliability and validity. With regard to reliability, we used Carroll (1993) coefficient a to estimate the internal consistency of the three-predictor scales in use. Each scale exhibited sufficient internal consistency, with standardized alphas ranging from a low of 0.91 in the case of cleanliness to a high of 0.94 in the case of facility aesthetics. To evaluate the validity of these scales, we subjected the 17 items comprising them to an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with varimax (orthogonal) rotation. We followed common practice in retaining those factors with eigenvalues in excess of 1 and ultimately retained three factors that accounted for approximately 73 percent of the variance observed. We further followed common practice in declaring item i to have loaded on factor j given:* a substantial (greater than 0.65) loading of i on factor j; and* non-substantial loadings of item i on other factors.Given these parameters, our results, depicted in Table III, were encouraging with regard to our predictor items' convergent and discriminant validity. Items in each set of measures tended to load strongly together and tended to not load substantially on other factors.We were further encouraged by the analyses we conducted with regard to our response variable, customer satisfaction. The ten customer satisfaction items exhibited substantial internal consistency (with a standardized Cronbach's a of 0.95), and an EFA we performed on those items resulted in only one factor whose eigenvalue was in excess of 1. Given these results, we were comfortable in creating factor-based scores representing, for a given respondent, his or her average score across a particular scale's items. These averages were then used in the actual tests of our hypotheses.Given the nature of the hypotheses, a moderated multiple regression analysis was utilized to test the relationships of interest. The data were first examined to check their suitability for conducting multiple regression (e.g. multicollinearity, normaility, etc.). No problems were identified. For each of the hypotheses, a four step process was used for the regression. In the first model an industry dummy variable was included to control for any industry effects. The second and third models introduced the servicescape variable of interest and the strategy variable (coded 0 for cost leaders and 1 for differentiators), respectively. The fourth model introduced the interaction term of servicescape variable X strategy. Results for the fourth model for each of the regressions are shown in Table IV.As can be seen in the table, results for the interaction term were significant in all three of the regressions. In the case of layout accessibility, facility aesthetics, and cleanliness the overall regression was significant as were the b's for the interaction term. Looking further, it can be seen that while the servicescape variables had a positive influence in general on customer satisfaction, this influence was stronger in each case for firms pursuing a differentiation strategy than for firms pursuing a cost leadership strategy. These results are in line with the logic of the hypotheses that the relationship between servicescape and customer satisfaction will be stronger for differentiators than for cost leaders. As such, H1, H2, and H3 are all supported. Implications of these results are discussed in the next section.\nDiscussion: A common theme in the service operations literature is that, at least within the same broad industry subsector/sector, the return from an increased amount of any given service characteristic should be the same for all firms. Casual observation, however, suggests that firms within the same industry/quadrant often differ with regard to the emphasis they place on various service characteristics. Recognizing this, researchers have begun to question traditional approaches that emphasize efficiency/variation tradeoffs and have moved to more detailed examination of the service experience and its influence on customer outcomes. Further, several recent reviews have emphasized the need to go even further and provide clearer advice for organizations on how they might prioritize investment in service offerings within the context of the broader firm strategy (Goldstein et al., 2002; Ostrom et al., 2010; Spring and Araujo, 2009).The literature in the field of strategic management has long accepted that organizations compete in particular ways in the pursuit of sustainable competitive advantage (Andrews, 1971; Ansoff, 1965; Miles and Snow, 1978; Mintzberg, 1994; Porter, 1980; Rumelt, 1979). In his seminal work on strategy, Mintzberg (1994) suggested that each firm within an industry tends to form a pattern of activities that reflects the core focus of the firm and what it is best equipped to do. That is, firms within an industry will emphasize different activities depending on their competitive approach. Combining this view with the calls for broader approaches within service research, this study thus set out to determine if knowing a firm's competitive strategy would enhance an understanding of:* those areas in which a firm might want to develop a particular service characteristic; and* the level of emphasis that should be placed on this characteristic.In line with predictions, our results suggest that the strength of the relationship between customer satisfaction and particular service characteristics depends in part on what strategy the firm is pursuing. Broadly speaking, increased levels of layout accessibility, facility aesthetics, and cleanliness were associated with greater increases in customer satisfaction for firms pursuing a differentiator strategy than for those firms pursuing a cost leader strategy. Such a finding points to the risks - for both scholarship and practice alike - of focusing strictly on the characteristics of the service sector in which firms compete when determining the appropriate services and levels of service that should be offered. While the characteristics of a given service sector may shape broad challenges that must be achieved by any viable firm (e.g. performance levels on particular criteria that are \"order-qualifying\") (Hill, 1993), the results obtained here suggest that gains from additional servicescape performance are likely to accrue disproportionately to those firms pursuing particular competitive strategies. Considered as a whole, these findings thus support the central argument of this research, namely that strategy must be taken into account when considering the influence of servicescape on firm outcomes.Caution should be taken, of course, in generalizing these findings to industries and firms beyond those examined in this study. If the firms we targeted represent strategic extremes, then the differing payoffs we observed might not be obtained across a broader spectrum of industries and firms. That said, it would seem that the firms examined here might actually provide a somewhat conservative test of the hypothesized relationships. Clearly, customer expectations of, and response to, servicescape and other service factors would be likely to vary if one were to compare a high-end differentiator to a low-end cost leader (e.g. a luxury car dealer to a used car lot). Our sample, however, was purposely focused on firms that competed in similar sub-segments within their broader industries in an effort to help control general service expectation levels. Thus, while our measures indicated variation in firm strategy, the range of strategic options was restricted because the firms were all in common subsectors of broader industries. The fact that strategy could still be shown to be a moderator under such conditions lends additional strength to the findings and should encourage further research into the service/strategy relationship.Additional research is needed to examine industry/subsectors beyond those included here. While the research did cover three different industry subsectors, all were in the retail area where a tangible good was delivered to the customer (either food or products) and it is possible that this influenced the outcomes. Services can vary significantly in how central the service offerings are to the core experience of the customer/firm interaction (Voss et al., 2008), and future work should examine a variety of these sectors to see if the strategy/service interaction holds.In addition, service characteristics beyond those included here need to be examined. One approach would be to do initial research to determine the most important service characteristics within a given industry - the order qualifier service components - and then examine how relationships with these characteristics may differ depending on strategy. Future research may also want to expand the examination to include characteristics associated with service quality (Parasuraman et al., 1988; Parasuraman et al., 1994; Zeithaml, 1981) to provide a richer and more generalizable understanding of the relationship between strategy and service characteristics, and to incorporate issues that are more process-oriented (e.g. the structuring of the actual service delivery process) in such strategy-contingent work.\nConclusion: As noted in our introduction, lessons learned from manufacturing, marketing, and retail have strongly influenced the practice of and research into service operations management. As a result, these concepts have grounded much of current pedagogy regarding service operations. In this research, we set out to see whether lessons learned in another discipline, strategy, might similarly enrich our understanding of the challenges service firms face in attempting to satisfy their customers. Our results suggest that this effort to broaden the field's understanding regarding the competitive context of service operations was worthwhile; teaching, practice and research should all benefit from a more comprehensive understanding of the significant contingencies that must be considered in service operations settings.While many scholars would reject the proposition that \"context is everything\", most would also agree that incorporating \"substantive context\" greatly enriches a field's understanding of a given phenomenon (Johns, 2001). In this vein, the results presented here suggest that considering the influence of strategy raises the possibility of finer-grained, more context-specific answers to important service operations questions. We hope, therefore, that our work here serves as an initial step in that direction.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between firm service characteristics and customer satisfaction as moderated by firm competitive strategy. Specifically, this research utilizes Porter's depiction of generic competitive strategy to explain the strength of the relationship between a service's particular servicescape choices and customer satisfaction.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The empirical data for this research were obtained from 1,287 customers of ten service organizations representing three industry segments. Multiple regression analysis is utilized to test three hypotheses that propose firm competitive strategy moderates the strength of the relationship between service characteristics and customer satisfaction.\nFindings: - The results support the assertion that firm competitive strategy has an impact on the strength of the relationship between customer satisfaction and servicescape characteristics. Of note, these findings indicate that the payoff for investment in physical surroundings differs depending on firm competitive strategy.\nPractical implications: - The results point to the importance of aligning firm strategy and operational decisions when seeking to maximize customer satisfaction. Decision makers benefit from understanding how strategy matters in service operational choices.\nOriginality/value: - The paper makes connections across academic disciplines to highlight the importance of linking firm competitive strategy with service operation choices to enhance customer satisfaction. The model developed here, supported with empirical results, provides insights for both researchers and practitioners regarding the value of investment in service-related activities.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Change management in the entrepreneurial Latin-American organizations: an overview	[ "Latin‐American organizations", "Entrepreneurship", "Change management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nThe content of the special issue: During decades, scholars have taken for granted the positive effect of co-location in firm's performance. In this vein, clusters have been considered as islands of homogeneity, where firms may freely access knowledge. However recent research goes beyond the traditional Marshallian ideas, suggesting that the spatial dimension \"per se\" does not foster collective learning and knowledge transfers, but the embeddedness of firms in localized networks. In addition, it subscribes the uneven and selective nature of knowledge diffusion, highlights the role of extra-cluster linkages and claims for the internal heterogeneity of these industrial agglomerations. Martinez, Belso and Mas Verdu's paper provides additional empirical support to this new research trend, using secondary and qualitative data collected in the Leon-Guanajuato cluster (Mexico) and the Vinalopo cluster (Spain). The 15 in-depth interviews with managers-owners, experts and policy makers conducted in each cluster, allowed us the application of socio-metric analysis with UCINET software package and a nuanced comprehension of the structure of the two networks considered. Generally speaking, results obtained reveal how each cluster feeds off companies exhibiting relevant differences in terms of resource base (e.g. absorptive capacity), local linkages and extra-cluster connections. Divergences also arise when comparisons between both industrial systems are conducted. Thus, we detected that similar firms or local institutions play distinct roles or present different weights depending on the agglomeration considered. Although limitations exist due to the nature of our data and the methodology, some valuable implications for managers and policy makers close the paper.The paper \"An entrepreneur's social capital and performance: The role of access to information in the Argentinean case\" presents a multidimensional approach to social capital and analyzes the impact of each of its dimensions (specifically: structural, relational and resource dimensions) on the performance of an entrepreneurial project. Fornoni, Vila and Arribas analyze the main channels through which social capital has an impact on performance, quantifying the role of social capital in facilitating access to markets, production, information and finance. They show that access to information is the main root of impact on the performance of the venture, followed, to a lesser extent, by access to finance and markets. The paper also establishes that social capital has an impact on the performance of an entrepreneurial project primarily through its resource and relational dimensions, and to a lesser extent through its structural component. In addition, the relational dimension acts primarily by helping entrepreneurs to access the information they need to improve the performance of their businesses, while the dimension of resources is primarily a facilitator of access to finance. Thus, all empirical evidence in this article points to the desirability of establishing networks with simple structures but composed of diverse and high-quality links. This result has an important managerial implication: it suggests that to access relevant information for business properly, entrepreneurs must focus their efforts not so much on increasing their number of contacts but on establishing and enhancing a lower number of good-quality links.There are few articles that study how technological networks are changing the business world, since within the internet there is a socialization process by promoting inter-personnel relationships. However, it is necessary to know how this interaction and the contents generated can be used to create competitive advantage. In this sense, the article developed by Assis, Palacios and Merigo focuses on the relationship between market orientation of an organization and its degree of involvement in social networks and how organizational learning is created. According to the results of this research, practitioners should place emphasis on market orientation and developing technological social networks, since they have a strong impact on organizational learning. Managers should design the site of the firm in order to allow customers to introduce contents and express their necessities. The site should include all the multimedia tools in order to interact with the user. All of this is useful to know the quality of the services carried out by the firm. In this sense, in order to correctly introduce social knowledge in the firm, it is not only necessary to implement new technology, it is also important to promote a culture where participation is key, developing synergies between users through a recurrent process. If users introduce link and rank contents, a collective intelligence is created and it increases user's performance.The recent appearance of Entrepreneurs in Displacement Situation (EDS) has recently caused one of the main socioeconomic problems in Colombia. Defined as a population forced to migrate due to violence, which has arisen from armed conflict, they are generally forced to start new businesses, microcredit being one of the main pillars where EDS get funding. One of the main problems of EDS in Colombia is their difficulty in adapting to a new social and economic environment where they are forced to established themselves. This adaptation would be improved with the acquisition of basic knowledge, enabling them to achieve a minimum income for survival to avoid the rupture of social peace, while generating social and economic welfare, mainly in large Colombian cities affected by this problem. After having conducted a survey between March and September 2010 mixing 92 Alfa Ti and DELPHI surveys to entrepreneurs, of whom 46 were Entrepreneurs in Displacement Situation (EDS), Gamez Gutierrez and Saiz-Alvarez (2011) propose new management techniques applied to EDS that are based on education, solidarity, financial aid and social inclusion programs. In this work, the so-called \"Five C's\" Pentagon has been designed, and a Pyramid of Micro-corporate Success for EDS is also elaborated after having applied three methodologies, with the scope to serve as guiding tools for EDS to better survive in economically hostile environments.Entrepreneurial Intention Models provide a very important theoretical framework when it comes to explaining entrepreneurial initiatives and the venture creation phenomenon. Broadly speaking, what these models claim is that any attempt to create a new business is preceded by the intention to develop entrepreneurial behavior; and this intention is at the same time influenced by different factors. According to Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Latin America constitutes one of the most important regions where the venture creation phenomenon takes place. Guzman-Alfonso and Guzman-Cuevas studied Entrepreneurial Intention Models in Latin America in one model in order to check if the Entrepreneurial Intentions Models can really explain the entrepreneurial initiative phenomenon in this part of the world. Furthermore, we analyze if the three elements usually understood as determinants of the entrepreneurial intentions (Attitudes, Perceived Social Values, and Perceived Self-efficacy) actually precede the entrepreneurial intentions in this region. Two linear regression models are carried out by using the data provided from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for the years 2008, 2009 and 2010. The results obtained show the strength of these models with the exception of a negative relationship between the Perception of Social Values about entrepreneurship and the Entrepreneurial Intention, which contradicts the previous literature. This could be related to the higher degree of necessity entrepreneurship more than opportunity entrepreneurship observed when the venture creation phenomenon takes place in this region. Nevertheless, we will delve into this issue further in the future.Avila, Galindo Martin and Mendez Picazo in their paper entitled \"SERCREA+ Model: a business tool for change management in Mexican organizations\" analyze the Mexican case. Alterations in the market brought about by economic, political and cultural changes often make it complicated for business organizations to adapt to new circumstances. If they are not able to overcome these obstacles they are forced to cease their activity, with the ensuing negative impact on social welfare. For this reason, it is important to analyze the role of change management in the resulting environment. Thanks to adequate change management practices, it is possible to promote high-quality entrepreneurship that would facilitate greater sustainability over time and enhance economic growth and employment. In order to study the different elements of change management that enhance the promotion of high-quality entrepreneurship, the authors develop a SERCREA+ model. This model includes two aspects. First, SER+ Model based on the hypothesis that firms are only as efficient as the manager, and that any one individual would be as good a director as he is a person. Second, The Action Learning methodology refers to the formation of networks of support to enable the entrepreneur to create a working group through a learning process. To estimate this model, the authors carry out interviews with 36 Mexican businessmen involved in the management process, concluding that change management has important positive effects in promoting sales and the creation of a support group that would make business activity more sustainable over time.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to provide an introduction to the papers presented in the special issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Six papers are included in the special issue and an overview of their content is given.\nFindings: - Alteration in markets that is brought about by economic, political and cultural changes often makes it difficult for business organizations to adapt to new circumstances. The papers focus, in a Latin American context, on how technological networks are changing the business world, the role of entrepreneurialism, and the positive effects of change management.\nOriginality/value: - The article introduces the six original and well-presented papers.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Ecology-centred accounting for biodiversity in the production of a blanket bog	[ "Accounting", "Sustainability", "Conservation", "Nature", "Biodiversity", "Ecology" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The literature on accounting for biodiversity seeks to explain accounting's role in achieving biodiversity conservation (Jones, 2014a; Jones and Solomon, 2013). Studies of various forms of accounting for biodiversity have broadly conceptualised its role as being to somehow bring biodiversity into the processes of organisational decision making, in the hope that this will encourage organisations to modify their behaviour in ways that will be conducive to conservation (Cuckston, 2013; Jones, 2014b; Rimmel and Jonall, 2013; Samkin et al., 2014).\n2. Accounting for biodiversity: A basic idea underpinning the study of accounting as a social practice (Hopwood and Miller, 1994) is that accounting does not simply passively record reality, but rather it actively constructs reality (Hines, 1988). Miller and Power (2013, p. 558) describe accounting as a \"productive force\", playing an active role in organising economies and societies. They suggest that, despite the efforts of professional institutions to define accounting as a straightforward technical activity, \"the very idea of accounting is fluid, historically contingent, and constantly shifting [...] [such that] there are always pressures for new accountings\" (p. 588). Accounting translates qualities into quantities so as to render phenomena comparable and calculable (Miller, 1992; Power, 2015). By making some things visible in particular ways, and keeping other things hidden, accounting creates conditions that shape how people perceive their own freedoms and possibilities (Espeland and Sauder, 2007). Thus, Kornberger and Carter (2010, p. 340) offer a broad and inclusive conceptualisation:Accounting is the calculative practice that delineates the playing field and defines the rules of the game.\n3. Social nature: Twenty years ago, Milne (1996) set out what he called a \"framework of analytical approaches to environmental resources within which to view existing and future accounting developments\" (p. 135). Four approaches to what is, basically, accounting for nature were identified. These were: no accounting for nature, accounting for externalities, accounting for sustainability, and non-accounting for nature. Each of these approaches sees nature, and the challenges it presents for organisations, in different ways.\n4. Data and analysis: In order to study the role of ecology-centred accounting for biodiversity in efforts to conserve biodiversity, this paper examines a case study of a conservation project which aims to restore a degraded blanket bog habitat that is situated in the Peak District National Park in the North of England. This particular conservation project was chosen as a case study that is representative of the challenges of biodiversity conservation in a world of social nature because the organisations managing the project - a large water company, which owns the land, and a national conservation charity[5] - explicitly recognise that biodiversity conservation in this case requires prolonged active intervention so as to \"restore the natural habitat and the plants and animals that rely on it\" (United Utilities, 2016). Following Dey and Russell's (2014) challenge to researchers to seek out ecology-centred accounts of biodiversity used in conservation efforts, this research has sought to identify such accounts and to seek to understand their role in this conservation project, using Jessop et al.'s (2008) TSNP framework as a guide.\n5. Producing a blanket bog: Ecological restoration of a degraded blanket bog habitat is having a transformational effect on the landscape and its biodiversity. But what role has ecology-centred accounting for biodiversity played in these conservation efforts? The following four subsections will use the dimensions of Jessop et al.'s (2008) TSNP framework to analyse how such accounting has made the blanket bog visible and comprehensible in ways that make this biodiversity conservation thinkable and possible.\n6. Conclusion: The accounting literature has long been troubled by the basic dilemma of how organisation-centred accounting can possibly play a role in sustaining life-supporting ecological systems (Milne, 1996; Milne and Gray, 2013). At the heart of this paper is a concern with what it means to take up Dey and Russell's (2014) challenge to shift our conceptualisation of the accounting entity away from organisations and towards ecological systems. This paper has proposed that to make sense of this conceptualisation, and thus to understand ecology-centred accounting for biodiversity as what Miller and Power (2013, p. 558) call a \"productive force\", we need to accept a view of the world as being comprised of what Castree (2001) calls social nature. This is a world comprised of socio-ecological systems: hybrid realities co-produced by humans and non-humans (Whatmore, 2002). It is a world grounded in a relational ontology: an ontology whereby socio-ecological systems are dynamic, fluid becomings that are being perpetually produced by the interactions of their (human and non-human) components. This paper has adopted this relational ontology and used Jessop et al.'s (2008) TSNP framework as a way to guide an analysis of the ways that ecology-centred accounting for biodiversity produces accounting entities that make visible and comprehensible various dimensions of the relations comprising socio-ecological systems.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of ecology-centred accounting for biodiversity in efforts to conserve biodiversity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper examines a case study of biodiversity conservation efforts to restore a degraded blanket bog habitat. The analysis adopts a social nature perspective, which sees the social and the natural as inseparably intertwined in socio-ecological systems: complexes of relations between (human and non-human) actors, being perpetually produced by fluid interactions. Using a theoretical framework from the geography literature, consisting of four mutually constitutive dimensions of relations - territory, scale, network, and place (TSNP) - the analysis examines various forms of accounting for biodiversity that are centred on this blanket bog.\nFindings: The analysis finds that various forms of ecology-centred accounting for biodiversity have rendered this blanket bog visible and comprehensible in multiple ways, so as to contribute towards making this biodiversity conservation thinkable and possible.\nOriginality/value: This paper brings theorising from geography, concerning the social nature perspective and the TSNP framework, into the study of accounting for biodiversity. This has enabled a novel analysis that reveals the productive force of ecology-centred accounting for biodiversity, and the role of such accounting in organising the world so as to produce socio-ecological systems that aid biodiversity conservation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Will de Gaulle's state planners bite the dust?	[ "Central government", "Government policy", "State", "France" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: One of the few State planning agencies existing among the industrial democracies, France's Commissariat General du Plan (General Planning Agency) has lost its chief and may soon close down. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced in October that \"le Plan\" is to be converted into a new Centre for Strategic Analysis, better to serve the republic's executive arm, especially on questions of mid- and long-term strategy. (There already exists in the Paris government a somewhat controversial Centre for Social Analysis, headed by a former minister of education, Luc Ferry.) The new Centre's aims and working approaches remain, however, to be made public.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To examine the survivability, in France, of what may be one of the world's oldest state planning bodies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This is a straightforward account of what is happening to centralized planning in a democratic state.\nFindings: - France's current government found the agency unneeded.\nPractical implications: - If the State Planning Agency in Paris is eliminated, France will have no centralized office for strategic planning.\nOriginality/value: - The chronicle records the abolition of an entity recognized by government during the previous 60 years as being essential to its functioning.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Implementing sustainable facility management: Challenges and barriers encountered by Scandinavian FM practitioners	[ "Technology", "Policies", "Organizational change", "Sustainable FM", "Challenges and barriers", "Stakeholders and end user involvement" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Sustainability is widely accepted as \"improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems\" (IUCN/WWF, 1991). In facility management (FM), the discussion of sustainability includes considering the development phase of planning, designing, constructing, renovating, operating and demolishing a building and how the building can be adapted to fit with the purpose of its users, optimizing its resources during its life cycle. Although there is broad agreement among FM practitioners on the need to implement sustainable solutions, the sector is still lagging behind in terms of implementation. The latter has mainly embraced its environmental responsibilities, but the social, cultural and economic potential of sustainability has not yet been fully optimized (Sarpin et al., 2016). The lack of clarity of the concept itself is caused by it being subject to many definitions encompassing different dimensions, and applications strategies, which may slow its promotion (Elmualim, 2017). According to previous research, it seems difficult for FM practitioners to orient themselves in the complexity of sustainability and to make adequate decisions. In particular, the combination of environmental, economic and social ambitions requires multidisciplinary competencies (Sarpin et al., 2016). Besides this, because practitioners focus on theoretical calculations of energy and other measurable features, they fail to address the questions related to the daily use of the facilities and the integration of the users (Sezer, 2012; Gram-Hanssen et al., 2017). Researchers have underlined the need to include stakeholders and in particular end-users in the early planning and design phases to ensure the efficiency of the renovation (Kaatz et al., 2005; Menassa and Baer, 2014; Store-Valen et al., 2016).\n2. Context and theoretical frame: 2.1 The sustainability concept\n3. Methodology: This article draws on the results of a Nordic-built project called \"Sustainable Operation of Buildings\" that aims at strengthening sustainable FM competencies in Scandinavian educational institutions (Buser et al., 2017). The research team includes two professional schools in Denmark, KEA and VIA, and two universities, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway, and is under the management of the Danish Association of Building Experts, Managers and Surveyors (KF).\n4. Challenges and barriers as experienced by the practitioners: In this section, we compare the barriers and challenges which we identified in the literature with the ones reported by the practitioners who took part in the workshops and stakeholder interviews. We discuss the alignment/misalignment of the barriers and challenges and the main findings are listed in Table III.\n5. Conclusions: In this paper, we aimed to identify barriers and challenges that hinder implementation of sustainable FM as perceived by the practitioners who took part in this research.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The development of sustainable facilities management (FM) practices requires active and integrated engagement of the FM organization. Building on a three-year research project (2015-2018) within Nordic Built that aims to strengthen FM competencies in the Scandinavian countries, this paper aims to list and document the challenges and barriers of implementing sustainability as identified by the Scandinavian FM practitioners who took part in this research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper builds on the understanding gained from using an interpretive sociological approach and uses qualitative mixed methods to collect data from four workshops, group sessions and expert group discussions with a mix of representatives including owners, property managers, facilities managers, consultants, teachers and academics. Four case studies were completed of refurbishment projects implementing sustainable solutions; these encompassed in-depth interviews with the stakeholders, site visits, observations of meetings and gathering project documentation. The data were complemented by a systematic literature review on a selection of topics focusing on articles referring directly to FM, the sustainability of FM, ends-user and stakeholder involvement, energy performance and sustainability. The challenges and barriers identified in practice were compared to those found in the literature.\nFindings: The concept of sustainability, and its different dimensions and implications, seems to be well understood now by the practitioners who participated in this study, who claimed they were able to provide the required solutions. What seems to be lacking, though, is the possibility of convincing the end-users, who are expected to operate and maintain the facilities, to act according to the standards that these solutions require. It appears to be easier to focus on the technical aspects than on the end-users' behaviors. The practitioners reported a shortage of social competencies and tools to deal with the situation, and despite an increasing awareness of smart technology, they lacked solutions to engage the end-users in optimizing the facilities. Besides, not all FM companies were well equipped to face the challenges imposed by the sustainable agenda; the small and medium enterprises in particular seemed to be struggling to implement the different dimensions of sustainability.\nResearch limitations/implications: The limitation of this research rests in the chosen research approach as it focuses on the FM practitioners. The contribution of the end-users' perspective is not strongly represented or systematically explored, but is identified as a new topic that needs to be investigated further to provide further insight. This study focuses on refurbishment and/or retrofit of existing buildings and the operation of facilities. The authors do not embrace the design phase or the construction phase of new buildings.\nPractical implications: The paper underlines the need for frameworks and concrete tools to help FM practitioners to integrate the social and cultural aspects of sustainability. It identifies end-users, both in housing and in offices, as creating a bottleneck to the implementation of sustainable FM. To gain insight into this bottleneck, the authors suggest implementing a sociologically inspired method using an integrative approach. Highlighting such issues will mean that future research will be able to define further solutions for managing and maintaining existing and future built assets and fulfilling sustainability requirements by engaging end-users. This study also emphasizes the need to introduce these topics as part of the curriculum for FM education.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides an update on the level of the development of sustainable FM in the three Scandinavian countries. This is highly relevant for Scandinavian practitioners, but the authors consider this relevant for international practitioners, researchers, academics and teachers and developers as well. Practitioners and researchers are invited to join in these efforts to explore how to find practical frameworks, tools, policies and instruments and new services that will improve sustainable FM practices.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Understanding religious diversity: implications from Lebanon and France	[ "Religion", "Diversity", "France", "Lebanon", "Colonialism", "Positive discrimination" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper offers an analysis of the organization of religion in the workplace in Lebanon and France. Choosing these two countries presents two interesting and contrasting cases of how diversity is tackled. On the one hand, French laws implement no positive action rules for religious diversity in the workplace. On the other hand, Lebanon has a form of quota system for religious representation in senior public sector positions and also has implicit norms for such representation in other lower level positions. The paper discusses how both approaches do not adequately serve diversity objectives. The paper contributes to the literature on diversity in the workplace by questioning the organization of religion in two countries that are under researched in management and organization studies. Furthermore, it proposes future directions as regards to how organizations can adopt more effective diversity strategies.\nUnderstanding religious diversity in the workplace: There is growing interest among academics and business practitioners in the relevance of religion and religious diversity in the workplace. This has been motivated by several factors including the emergence of a more diverse workforce because of global competition, immigration, and societal and political changes (e.g. Hicks, 2002; Kelly, 2008; Shen et al., 2009). Employers are exploring ways to accommodate religious expression while at the same time stay sensible to the specific contexts in which they operate. Measures that organizations take to accommodate religious expression are always intertwined with broader social and legal contexts. This is why aspects of religious diversity vary if one compares a country like Canada (Sossin, 2009) and Australia (Syed and Pio, 2010) to European countries (Alidadi et al., 2012). Comparing the particular cases of Lebanon and France is illuminating at an international level for reasons that we explain below.\nReligion in the Lebanese workplace: Our main argument in the case of Lebanon is that \"positive discrimination\" as implemented is not working. It is actually leading Lebanese organizations to miss on attracting and retaining local talent. Lebanon is a small Arab country located in Western Asia but has unique characteristics differentiating it from its Arab neighbors (Sidani and Gardner, 2000). In Lebanon, there are 18 religious communities officially acknowledged by the government (Nelson, 2013). Religious communities (confessions) include Christians, such as Maronites and Greek Orthodox, and Muslims such as Sunnis and Shiites (Haddad, 2002). These confessions are also reflected in geographical divisions of the country: the south is known to be a Shiite area, the capital Beirut multi-confessional, the eastern part of the country Christian, and the northern part Sunni. Confessionalism in Lebanon distributes institutional powers among various religious communities. The claim of this scheme is to secure balanced power sharing. In this way, the government formally acknowledges the rights of religious groups, majority and minorities, by securing a supposedly equitable sharing of institutional, political, economic, and social power among them. Hence, confessional diversity is defined by power distribution among different religious groups.\nReligious diversity in France: While the French facilitated the institutionalization of religion in Lebanon as a means of ensuring the representation of the different confessional groups, in France, under laws based on the Republican values of equality, it is illegal to discriminate - negatively or positively - against people based on their religion or ethnicity. This section offers a nuanced understanding of the French Republic's model and its paradoxes.\nWhere do we go from here?: Although, historically speaking, religion has been institutionalized by the French in France's ex-colony, Lebanon, our analysis shows two opposing religious diversity models in Lebanon and France. In Lebanon, the country completely relies on a confessional scheme in the public sector (\"Constrained outcome,\" Klarsfeld, 2010). In the private sector, there is lack of proper legal apparatus to promote religious diversity. All of this has proven to be counterproductive. In France, neither organizations nor institutions are allowed to refer to religious diversity in employment practices (\"Equality of rights,\" Klarsfeld, 2010; Klarsfeld et al., 2014), and in practice, exclusion of religious minorities continues to be found in the context of work in France (Tatli et al., 2012). Two questions become relevant here. First, how can the contrast between the French institutionalization of religion in Lebanon and practices in France itself be explained? Second, what other alternatives do organizations have in navigating the institutionalization of religion and constructively managing their HRs? Based on our previous analysis, we attempt to answer these two questions.\nConclusion: The above two cases offer rich lessons for religious diversity scholarship and practice. Three are particularly salient.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to argue that national history plays an important role in formulations of workplace religious diversity strategies and practices. It builds on a discussion of the organization of religion in the workplace in two countries, namely, France and Lebanon.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper that provides an analysis into how national history plays an important role in formulations of workplace diversity strategies and practices.\nFindings: The paper shows how religion has historically been organized and deployed in contemporary France and Lebanon by the same colonial power, albeit in different ways. While the workplace in France remains religiously neutral in the context of its national labor market, the colonial power has largely contributed to organized religion in contemporary organizations in Lebanon. In analyzing the Lebanese and French cases, it is argued that the use of religious diversity has weakened the process of adopting equal, diverse, and inclusive managerial strategies.\nPractical implications: Experiences in both countries suggest a failure of \"blind neutrality\" in the case of France, and another failure of a form of positive discrimination in the case of Lebanon. The authors draw lessons from those two experiences and propose future directions of how policy makers/legislators and organizations can advance and capture more equal, diverse, and inclusive diversity strategies.\nOriginality/value: The above two cases offer rich lessons for religious diversity scholarship and practice. The paper contributes to the literature on diversity in the workplace by questioning the organization of religious diversity in two countries that are under researched in management and organization studies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Supply chain processes: Linking supply logistics integration, supply performance, lean processes and competitive performance	[ "Survey", "Lean", "Operational performance", "Supply chain management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Increasing competition has driven firms to not only improve their internal operations (including through process control and inventory management), but also focus on integrating their suppliers into the overall value chain processes. The contribution of suppliers in building competitive capabilities (quality, delivery, flexibility, and cost), hence delivering values to customers has been well recognized. Much has been written on the importance of supply chain management (SCM) on firm's performance. SCM can be conceptualized as comprising the management of the external and internal aspects of a firm's operations including the sourcing, logistics, production, and distribution processes involved in the offering of goods and services (Chen and Paulraj, 2004b; Pagell, 2004; Prajogo et al., 2008). While previous operation management research studies have generally focused on the internal aspects of the value chain, previous studies on SCM have largely focused on the external aspects of the value chain and performance implications (Chen and Paulraj, 2004a; Li et al., 2005). For instance, many studies which examined the effect of SCM practices suggest a direct effect of supplier integration on (outbound) competitive operational performance (Ellram et al., 2002; Chen et al., 2004; Tracey et al., 2005; Li et al., 2006; Tan and Tracey, 2007) while ignoring the internal processes involved in the relationship. In other words, the internal flows within firms are considered as a \"black box\" which has no decisive impact on the relationship between supply integration and competitive operational performance. This research aims to address this gap in knowledge by investigating how the external and internal aspects of the value chain align to impact or contribute to a firm's performance.\n2. Theoretical development and research hypotheses: In this section, we draw from relevant theoretical frameworks to establish the relationships between logistics integration, lean production processes, and inbound and competitive performance along with the hypotheses concerning their relationships.\n3. Research model: The research model is shown in Figure 1. In this model, we consider that supply logistics integration has an impact on inbound supply performance which will affect the competitive performance. For example, if supply logistics integration can result in lower total purchasing cost, this should translate into better competitive cost performance. At the same time, it facilitates the production processes of the firm which in turn will affect the competitive performance. Overall, this model suggests that the effect of supply logistics integration on competitive performance is partly mediated by inbound performance as well as lean production processes.\n4. Methods: 4.1. Sample and procedures\n5. Result: 5.1. Scale validity and reliability\n6. Discussion of the findings and their implications: Our study suggests that supply logistics integration is not a direct predictor of competitive performance in firms. Such integration needs to be translated into inbound supply performance including gains in costs of managing inventories and materials to impact the competitive performance of the firm. Supply logistics integration produces a streamlined supply chain where material and information flows are highly connected and there is high visibility across the chain which includes both internal and external processes. Such connectivity improves the inbound supply performance by eliminating or reducing incidences of late or wrong deliveries, thus, positively impacting competitive performance.\n7. Limitations and further research: This study has a number of limitations. First, we acknowledge that there are other practices not identified in this study that can be drivers of lean production processes and inbound supply performance other than supply logistics integration. Second, there may be other factors that affect the relationship between supply logistics integration and competitive performance, which can be included in future studies. For example, the links between departments or functions (i.e. procurement, production, and marketing/distribution) which encompass the whole value chain activities within organizations may influence these relationships (cf. Pagell, 2004). Third, there are other practices that can be related to lean production processes which have not been included in this study, such as total preventive maintenance, 5S, Six sigma, and other wider aspects defined in the literature (see, e.g. Bhamu and Sangwan, 2014; Hines et al., 2004; Shah and Ward, 2003, 2007). Fourth, the fact that only one party in the supply chain (the buyer or focal firm) is incorporated in this study as survey respondents could be a limitation. Although the information provided captured the interfaces between the suppliers, the focal firm, and the customers, future research can improve on this study by allowing for data gathering from multiple supply chain partners. Finally, the sample population of this study is restricted to Australian firms. Although we expect these results to hold for supply chains in general, we cannot claim that this is the case. Therefore, future research may extend this study to a broader population of firms, including other countries, for the generalizability of the results and to detect potential country effects (Jasti and Kodali, 2014). Future research may also include outbound logistics integration to provide a broader picture of integration aspects in a supply chain network. Nevertheless, we believe that this study contributes to the understanding of how supply logistics integration, inbound supply performance, lean production processes are related to competitive outbound performance in a manufacturing firm.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the value chain processes that represent the \"black box\" between supply logistics integration and competitive operational performance in firms. To realize this objective, the authors develop a research model which comprises a series of linkages from supply logistics integration to operational outcomes using Porter's concept of value chain and the relational view of resource-based theory as theoretical lenses.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data set for testing the hypothesized relationships in this study was drawn from 232 Australian manufacturing firms.\nFindings: The findings show that there is no significant direct relationship between supply logistics integration and competitive operational performance; rather, the relationship is fully mediated by inbound supply performance and internal lean production processes. Further, lean production processes have a positive effect on inbound supply performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study shows the importance of managing both internal (production processes) and external processes (logistics and supply chain) of firms' operations in an integrated manner in which supply logistics integration act through key internal processes to impact competitive performance which the end customers actually experience.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study which uncovers what happens \"in between\" the incoming materials and the end outputs delivered by firms into the market. This \"in between black box\" is important in improving our understanding of how inbound supply activities are translated into outbound competitive performance outcomes.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The role of HRD in CSR and sustainability: a content analysis of corporate responsibility reports	[ "Corporate social responsibility", "Learning and development", "Sustainability", "Human resource development", "Organization development", "Corporate responsibility reporting" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Contemporary business organizations face increased pressure to conduct business in a responsible way, because of greater public awareness, diverse stakeholder interests and legal and political concerns (Carroll and Shabana, 2010). A growing number of organizations are thus engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities through which businesses \"contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families, as well as of the community and society at large\" (World Business Council for Sustainable Development, 2020). An important channel through which organizations demonstrate their commitment to CSR is corporate responsibility reporting (Junior et al., 2014). By voluntarily disclosing information on their social and environmental impact, organizations aim to increase transparency and accountability toward meeting stakeholder expectations and broader societal demands (Deegan, 2002). Nowadays, more than 90% of the largest 250 multinational companies (MNCs) worldwide disclose information on numerous aspects of their CSR and sustainability efforts (KPMG, 2017).\nLiterature review: In HRM and HRD literature, increasing attention is paid to the intersection of HR, CSR and sustainability (Gond et al., 2011; Voegtlin and Greenwood, 2016). HR's involvement in CSR and sustainability has been underscored by the importance to balance the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental business outcomes (Elkington, 2006), and the increasing need to address social and human sustainability aspects in organizations, often neglected in discussions of CSR and sustainability (Pfeffer, 2010).\nMethod: We conducted analysis of the contents of CR reports to identify emerging patterns and themes, purposefully selecting cases from different industries, countries and regions (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). Content analysis is a method for codifying text or other contents into groups or categories guided by a set of criteria (Weber, 1990). Previous studies in CSR and sustainability reporting have effectively used content analysis methods in examining corporate reporting behaviors and contents disclosed in CR reports (Campopiano and De Massis, 2015), and in studying the relationship between HRM activities and CSR reporting (Ehnert et al., 2015; Vuontisjarvi, 2006). To structure and conduct our content analysis of CR reports and examine the role of HRD in CSR and sustainability, we used data collection and analysis methods, borrowed from the grounded theory methodology (GMT). In their authoritative texts on grounded theory, Bryant and Charmaz (2007) and Charmaz (2014) describe examples of the adoption and adaptation of data collection and analysis methods from the toolkit of the GMT in a range of qualitative studies, where the study authors did not have an explicit goal of developing a formal theory. Our approach involved an iterative process of interpreting emerging patterns and categories from systematic and on-going data collection and analysis (Strauss and Corbin, 1998).\nFindings: Seven areas of HRD work have emerged from our analysis as emphasized in company reports as most important in the contexts of CSR and sustainability:\nDiscussion: This study aimed to understand the role of HRD in CSR- and sustainability-related initiatives, using content analysis of CR reports of large MNCs. Seven areas emerged as most relevant to HRD work and its core practices including learning and development, culture change and knowledge sharing. Overall, our findings extend previous research highlighting the importance of HRD work to CSR and sustainability (Ardichvili, 2013; Fenwick and Bierema, 2008; Garavan and McGuire, 2010) and are consistent with empirical studies in the broader HR literature that support these claims (Ehnert et al., 2015; Gond et al., 2011; Vuontisjarvi, 2006).\nConclusion: This study sought to examine the role of HRD in CSR and sustainability, by examining HRD-related work most emphasized in CR reports of 23 MNCs in Europe, Asia and North America. Our findings extend previous research on the intersection of HR, CSR and sustainability, and provide evidence as to which HRD activities can make an important contribution to CSR and sustainability in organizations. We highlighted several areas in which HRD may contribute through the integration of HRD's roles, practices and interventions, including but are not limited to, learning and development, culture change initiatives, communication and collaborative efforts and strategic roles. We hope that our findings will contribute to research and theory building on the intersections of HRD and CSR and sustainability and will stimulate further interest in both research and practice related to contributions of human development and organization development to the CSR and sustainability agenda.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine the role of human resource development (HRD) in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability initiatives of multinational companies (MNCs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors analyze contents of corporate responsibility (CR) reports disclosed by 23 MNCs from Europe, Asia and North America to examine HRD's contribution to CSR and sustainability, with particular attention to long-term human development and organization development.\nFindings: The analysis of CR reports indicates that HRD is perceived as playing a role in the following areas: diversity, equity and inclusion; community engagement; work-life balance; employee long-term growth and development; performance management; business ethics and ethical culture; and raising CSR awareness. In all areas, HRD was identified as playing a significant role in supporting companies' CSR agendas.\nOriginality/value: This study extends research on the intersection of HR, CSR and sustainability and provides evidence of HRD's important contributions to CSR and sustainability.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Evaluation of retail service quality - a fuzzy AHP approach	[ "Benchmarking", "Service quality", "Quality" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Global retail industry has seen drastic change in the recent time and India is no exception. The Indian retail market is one of the fastest growing retail markets in the world and is experiencing strong competition recently due to growing customer awareness of service quality. As per AT Kearney's (2012) report, India is a high-potential market with accelerated retail market growth of 15-20 percent expected over the next five years, supported by GDP growth of 6-7 percent. Retailing comprises of sales of goods or services to the end-user and as such, it is a service sector, which connotes a service function in terms of distributing goods and services to end-user. Jain and Ninan (2010) suggest that retail trade is the main activity, which has highly contributed to the growth of Indian service sector.\n1. Literature review: 1.1. Overview of Indian retail sector\n2. Fundamentals of fuzzy set theory and AHP: This section deals with the fundamental understanding of fuzzy and AHP method.\n3. Research methodology: 3.1. Survey\n4. Data analysis and results: 4.1. Determination of fuzzy numbers for each of the linguistic variables\n5. Conclusion and managerial implications: Indian retail industry is expected to grow at a rate of 15-20 percent over next five years. This indicates opportunities lying before the local and global retail players. The Indian retail sector shall gear up for the opportunities and one of the important dimensions requiring attention is service quality. The service quality can be the cornerstone to retailing success; retailers need to constantly evaluate their service quality through the use of a reliable measuring instrument and improve upon them. In practicing and judging the priorities of service quality strategies the decision maker is often faced with doubts, problems and uncertainties. In order to overcome the uncertainty of concepts those are associated with human beings' subjective judgments, the paper uses fuzzy numbers and membership functions. The modified AHP methodology is used to assess the weights of retail service quality dimensions and the weights of criteria. The combined FAHP method is a constructive approach for benchmarking the retailers to set strategies to improve the overall service quality of the store.\n6. Limitations and scope for future research: Although the findings of the study can provide insight and understanding for retailers to develop appropriate retail service strategies, also it shall be considered in lights of some of its limitations which may be of worth investigation for future researches. The study was restricted to a major city of Orissa and to three apparel stores. The results obtained may not be extrapolated to the country as a whole. The authors believe that the integrated approach of fuzzy and AHP could be used by a variety of service industries to evaluate the service quality.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: With the growing importance of service quality in Indian retail, it becomes critical for the retailers to identify the appropriate dimensions for their retail stores. In the process of evaluating service quality the decision maker is often faced with ambiguities due to the imprecise information gained from the respondents. The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated fuzzy (fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) approach to help the decision makers/retailers in practicing and judging the priorities of service quality strategies and accordingly benchmarking retail stores in Indian retail environment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study incorporated the five basic dimensions of Retail Service Quality Scale proposed by Dabholkar et al. (1996) and the FAHP approach to three leading apparel retail stores of a major city (Rourkela) of Orissa (an Indian state located in eastern part of the country) to determine the weights of criteria and sub-criteria of retail service quality.\nFindings: The study identified that the dimensions, namely, personal interaction, physical aspects, reliability and policy are perceived as important by the Indian consumers. Merchandise and the store's willingness to handle returns and exchanges emerge as the most influencing variable affecting the overall service quality of the store.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study was restricted to a major city of Orissa and to three apparel stores. The results obtained may not be extrapolated to the country as a whole. The authors believe that the integrated approach of FAHP could be used by a variety of service industries to evaluate the service quality. The study did not investigate switching behavior among the respondents as they had been visiting all the three apparel stores during the preceding months.\nPractical implications: The integrated approach of FAHP makes an empirical contribution to the service quality and retail marketing literature by overcoming the uncertainty of concepts those are associated with human beings' subjective judgments.\nSocial implications: The retailer can improve the quality of service provided by them based on the parameters important in Indian context, which will lead to higher customer satisfaction.\nOriginality/value: This paper can help the retail service providers to identify which of the retail service quality dimensions requires much attention to create sustainable competitive advantage.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Building ethical leadership: Best practice for better leaders	[ "Personality", "Leadership styles", "Ethical leadership", "Leadership development" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nReview: There is a theory that in a world of 24-hour news cycles, saturated social media use and ever-quicker turnover of news stories, it is easier to evade the consequences of leadership failure than it has been in times before. The reason given for this phenomenon is that while the white heat of suspicion, outrage and anger glows brighter now than ever before through the multitude of channels available, it also blows out much more quickly as the world moves on to the next scandal, disaster or news event. Indeed, if a given person or organization finds themselves in the spotlight, they are now much better equipped to shift its gaze themselves by creating a diversion elsewhere.\nEthical questions: The answer, one would hope, is an emphatic \"no.\" Indeed, organizations are increasingly focused on developing or recruiting ethical leaders that will shape their near-futures in a much more progressive style. We now see airline companies and oil firms tout their green credentials, car manufacturers source sustainable raw materials and beauty product manufacturers move away from palm oil and its derivatives. In almost any sector on cares to think about, ethical and sustainable conduct is at the heart of any growth program, and as such leaders have to be behind this approach 100 per cent. So, the question is not what we can learn from our political leaders, but what they can learn from a new order of business managers.\nTen out of ten: In order to synthesize the huge amount of research that has been published on ethical leadership, the authors conducted a detailed review and created a 10-point framework that provides the key antecedents necessary to develop ethical leadership. These 10 factors are then tested through by the authors to see which ones are the most effective in shaping ethical leaders. These factors are broken down in the following way:\nKey factors: In presenting these factors, it is worth highlighting some of them and the perceived role they play in developing ethical leaders. Firstly, honesty and integrity would be high on most people's list of what makes an ethical leader. Additionally, however, there is considerable research to also suggest such behavior increases the responsiveness and commitment of employees, so the impact is magnified. Secondly, transformational leadership is an interesting case as some have argued it can be either ethical or unethical. The key to transformational leadership is the ability to look ahead of self-interest and encourage employees to work together for a higher goal, and this may or may not be ethical in nature. However, such a style of leadership often overlaps with authentic or spiritual leadership, where the ethical element is clear.\nImplications: By looking at ethical leadership through the 10-factor lens that the authors created, they can see four main benefits for managers wishing to become greater ethical leaders within their organizations:\nComment: The article \"Developing ethical leadership for business organizations: A conceptual model of its antecedents and consequences\" (2019) by Sharma et al offers an ideal presentation not only of what is required of ethical leaders, but how they can achieve success and what its effect will be on all their employees. This halo effect really is powerful, and the framework highlighted in the article can be adopted by most organizations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds his/her own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: There is a theory that in a world of 24-hour news cycles, saturated social media use and ever-quicker turnover of news stories, it is easier to evade the consequences of leadership failure than it has been in times before. The reason given for this phenomenon is that while the white heat of suspicion, outrage and anger glows brighter now than ever before through the multitude of channels available, it also blows out much more quickly as the world moves on to the next scandal, disaster or news event. Indeed, if a given person or organization finds themselves in the spotlight, they are now much better equipped to shift its gaze themselves by creating a diversion elsewhere.\nPractical implications: This paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Building a theoretical framework of message authenticity in CSR communication	[ "Message", "Consumers", "Authenticity", "Corporate social responsibility", "Credibility" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to all corporate activities demonstrating the inclusion of social and environmental concerns in business operations, and in interactions with stakeholders, always according to the ambition levels of sustainability of the company (van Marrewijk, 2003). Thus, by engaging in CSR companies can generate favourable consumer attitudes and better support behaviours because it strengthens the relationship with these stakeholders (Sen et al., 2006). However, consumers' low awareness of and unfavourable attributions towards companies' CSR activities remain critical impediments in companies' attempts to maximise business benefits from CSR, highlighting a need for companies to communicate these activities more effectively (Du et al., 2010; van Rekom et al., 2014).\n2. Message authenticity: definition and related constructs: Due to the increasingly inauthentic or unbelievable nature of mass marketing, companies are progressively being pressured by consumers demanding greater transparency, openness and responsibility (Molleda, 2010). In this context, consumers constantly look for brands that are relevant, original and genuine, which means that they increasingly search for authenticity in companies (Morhart et al., 2014). Gilmore and Pine (2007) already acknowledged this development, stating that authenticity has overtaken quality as the prevailing purchasing criterion, just as quality overtook cost, and as cost overtook availability. Thus, authenticity should become central to the study and practice of modern marketing and communication management as well (Chiu et al., 2012) because, among other reasons, this attribute may represent a potential new pillar to create credibility and trust (Schallehn et al., 2014). Nevertheless, and although there is no doubt about the managerial importance of authenticity in corporate-consumer relationships, published research in the marketing and communication fields has yet not thoroughly explored the meaning of this construct (Schallehn et al., 2014) or its relevance in reference to how the CSR communication of companies is perceived by consumers and how they react to this type of messages (Crane and Glozer, 2016).\n3. How to integrate authenticity in CSR communication models: theoretical framework: The role of message authenticity in CSR communication models can be understood by integrating three streams of research: the identity-based brand management model (de Chernatony et al., 2011), attribution theory (Heider, 1958; Kelley, 1973) and HSM (Chaiken, 1980; Chaiken et al., 1989).\n4. Antecedents of message authenticity in CSR communication: Corporate identity is not easily visible. Hence, the question arises, how consumers arrive at the impression that a CSR message from a company is authentic (Schallehn et al., 2014). That is, which are the most significant antecedents of message authenticity? Based on the constructs most commonly discussed in previous literature, in this paper three antecedents of message authenticity are conceptualised and explored: CSR fit (Alhouti et al., 2016; van Rekom et al., 2014), social impact specificity (Alhouti et al., 2016; Pomering and Johnson, 2009a, b) and social topic information (Pomering and Johnson, 2009a, b).\n5. Outcomes of message authenticity in CSR communication: Research has shown that authenticity impacts consumers positively in different contexts such as, for instance, tourism (Kolar and Zabkar, 2010; Taylor, 2001; Wang, 1999) or branding management and theory (Fritz et al., 2017; Morhart et al., 2014; Schallehn et al., 2014). This study builds on these previous literature by presuming that consumers will also react positively to companies that engage in CSR and present authentic CSR messages (Alhouti et al., 2016). In this regard, consumer responses can be classified into internal outcomes, referred to consumer attitudes, trust and attributions concerning communication and the company behind it (Du et al., 2010), and external outcomes, related to tangible responses materialised in consumer pro-company behaviours (Du et al., 2010).\n6. Consumer features as moderators of communication effectiveness: The theoretical framework is completed with the identification of consumer personal features (i.e. demographic and psychological characteristics) that have the potential to affect the intensity of the authenticity-credibility link suggested in this paper. In this regard, researchers have already demonstrated that several characteristics of consumers, as the main recipients of the message, moderate the effectiveness of CSR communication (Du et al., 2010).\n7. Conclusions: 7.1 Conclusions and implications for CSR research\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrative theoretical framework that advances the underdeveloped stream of research that analyses how message authenticity influences the persuasiveness of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Theoretical and empirical literature on authenticity is reviewed to provide a comprehensive definition of message authenticity in CSR communication. An integrative theoretical framework is also developed to understand how message authenticity is enhanced through the design of informational content and it improves consumer responses to CSR communication.\nFindings: The framework presented in the paper defends that message authenticity can be integrated in communication models based on three streams of research: identity-based brand management model, attribution theory and heuristic-systematic model. Consumer attributions of message authenticity can be notably improved with a message design based on CSR fit, social topic information and specificity. Authenticity improves message and source credibility by reducing consumer scepticism and enhancing their attributions of corporate expertise and trustworthiness. Indirect benefits of CSR message authenticity include increased consumer purchase, loyalty and advocacy behaviours.\nOriginality/value: The value of the paper resides in making the rather underdeveloped and inconclusive literature on authenticity accessible to CSR and communication researchers and practitioners. A theoretical framework is provided for further research that would contribute to improving the knowledge on the role that message authenticity plays in CSR communication.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Whirling in between the personal and the impersonal: The quest for the marrow of organizational goals, and the lessons to be drawn thence	[ "Organization theory", "Organizational goals", "Group preferences", "Impersonal functions", "Personal aspirations" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Lately, the problem of organizational goals is pushed away to the sidelines of research interest. Its consideration usually confines itself mostly to the context of planning and control or, as some put it, is reduced to their \"normative\" and \"evaluative\" functions (Connolly et al., 1980, p. 211). However, goals have in organizations a by-far broader scope, being what they are going to do, that in what the image of the desired future is expressed.\n2. Through the lenses of the personal: 2.1 The master's will\n3. From the personal to the impersonal: 3.1 The innate purposes\n4. The same things all over again: 4.1 Proclaimed, but disclaimed\n5. By way of conclusion: The clue to the riddle: All the widespread approaches to organizational goals prove to be, in fact, very far from reality. The goals of an organization are not reformulations of those of its owners. Equally incorrect is to consider goals aggregated preferences of the membership. They should not be treated also as impersonal, once for all set functions taken as immutable (\"eternal\") guides reproducing themselves irrespectively of the environment and the potential of the organization itself. Finally, it would be inefficient to portray as organizational goals those priorities which, though being picked out by officials and, in this regard, begotten inside the organization, nevertheless comprise too little degrees of freedom and merely ensue from the objective status (prescribed behavior) the officials hold.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The paper aims to present a systematic conceptual analysis of the problem of organizational goal and to reduce the insights into it provided by the main conceptions taken in their development from one to another, to break out of the ruling paradigm and outline a new solution.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study has been carried out from the historical and critical perspective.\nFindings: The paper discovers the logic of the evolution the approaches to organizational goals have undergone and portrays it in a matrix form in the heart of which is the \"zigzag effect\": each posterior stage returns to the essential elements rejected by those preceding it, and the last stage, being diametrically opposite to the first, is, at that, as well as the latter, akin to the intermediate stages. The opportunities afforded by the current paradigm have been exhausted and it seems to run to an impasse. Instead, the author suggests a new frame of orientation: organizational goals are closely interknit with personal, but not reducible to them and bear fundamentally transpersonal character, while the mechanism of involving the preferences of individuals and groups in goal-setting is based on the self-contained interests of the organization they pertain to.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings, conclusions and generalizations obtained can serve for a necessary ground to researchers getting deeper into the essence of what bonds organizational life and activity.\nPractical implications: The material empowers practitioners to comprehend the difficulties of framing cohesive goal and find efficient ways to overcome them. It is of value also to the teachers seeking to present a more exact and elaborate view of teleological foundations of management and organization theory.\nOriginality/value: Both the conceptual analysis of the evolution of the approaches to organizational goals and the author's exposition of its logic and vision of their nature are provided for the first time.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Supply chain quality management: An inter-organizational learning perspective	[ "Supply chain quality", "Supply chain management", "Quality management", "Organizational learning" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The trend towards globalization along with higher rate of innovation and change has led to the development of networks of firms. Supply chain management (SCM) has been regarded as a major inter-organizational practice for gaining competitive advantage particularly for alliances and networks with suppliers and customers (Rungtusanatham et al., 2003; Janvier-James, 2012). SCM emphasizes interdependence among organizations, working collaboratively to achieve efficiency in supply chain activities (Shin et al., 2000; Narasimhan and Kim, 2002). Successful design and implementation of supply chains reduces cost, improves flexibility, enhances quality, and ensures customer satisfaction; therefore it would be a valuable way to maintain competitive advantage (Li et al., 2006). Researchers and scholars are interested to determine the factors that are critical to design and maintain effective supply chains (Childerhouse et al., 2002; Vonderembse et al., 2006; Stevenson and Spring, 2009). In that regards, understanding quality issues at the supply chain is critical to the success of the firm and supply chain performance (Sila et al., 2006).Despite the importance of supply chains and their role in enhancing competitive position of the organizations, little attention has been given to quality issues in supply chains. Recent product recalls and the vulnerability of supply chains to risk and disruptions indicates that quality issues have not been fully implemented across supply chains (Zhang et al., 2011). While at the firm level quality management is defined in terms of practices such as leadership commitment, customer satisfaction and employee involvement, our understanding about quality practices at the supply chain level is limited. This calls for more research to address the concept of quality within supply chains, i.e. to move beyond the scope of an organization and address quality within a network of firms (Sitkin et al., 1994; Ross, 1998; Foster, 2008; Foster et al., 2011). Our understanding of quality issues at the supply chain level is further complicated due to the challenges of coordination and cooperation across organizations. Therefore, the purpose this paper is to extend previous work in this area by providing a new definition and perspective towards quality.This paper looks at supply chain quality from a learning perspective[1]. It seeks to develop a theoretical base for buyer-supplier quality through the lenses of inter-organizational learning utilizing the knowledge-based view (KBV) of competitive advantage. To do so, a learning perspective of quality management has been utilized to define and develop supply chain quality management practices. Accordingly, the paper contributes to our understanding of quality practices across the supply chain from the KBV of inter-organizational learning.The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In the next section, the theoretical framework of the paper, the differences between quality management and supply chain quality, and the scholarly literature on supply chain quality are discussed. Based on the review of the literature on supply chain and quality management, several propositions that address the effect of buyer-supplier quality on firm performance are developed. Next, by utilizing the learning perspective of quality management, the learning aspect of quality was used to define supply chain quality management practices.\n2. Theoretical background: To address the concept of quality in the supply chain, a KBV of competitive advantage has been used. As an extension to the resource-based view (RBV), the KBV asserts that knowledge could be a source of competitive advantage which is socially constructed and is usually difficult to imitate (Kogut and Zander, 1992; Osterloh and Frey, 2000). The KBV posits that inter-firm resources and routines (e.g. knowledge sharing routines) can be sources of competitive advantage (Dyer and Singh, 1998). In this perspective a network of firms is the critical unit of analysis for understanding firm level organizational learning and knowledge creation. Through their linkages to other partners in a network, organizations would be able to learn by collaborating with other firms which helps them observe their practice and improve their own internal processes (Dyer and Nobeoka, 2000). As such, effective relationship with partners and development of knowledge creation mechanisms are key determinants of inter-organizational learning.Utilizing the KBV of inter-organizational relationship enables us to address the development and dynamics of learning in the supply chain by emphasizing practices that are specific to knowledge creation in a network. In the development of supply chain quality, the objective is to define quality practices that facilitate knowledge creation across the supply chain. In that regards, supply chain quality is defined as a set of practices that emphasize continuous process improvement among partners (firms) in the supply chain in order to enhance performance and achieve customer satisfaction through emphasis on learning.\n3. Quality: from the firm to the supply chain: Several issues should be addressed and emphasized as we move from the firm to the supply chain. Here a comparison of quality characteristic at the firm-level and supply chain level is provided.Level of analysis. The traditional view towards quality has limited its scope to the boundary of the firm, identifying and addressing quality practices that enhance firm performance (Sousa and Voss, 2002). Within this tradition, top management is the agent of change, who is responsible to initiate and lead quality programs (Kaynak, 2003). However, as we move toward collaboration with suppliers, the traditional view of quality has limited capability to address inter-firm processes and routines. This is primarily due to the change in the level of analysis from a single organization to multiple organizations.View toward quality. The traditional view towards quality emphasizes quality practices that improve organizational performance. Sousa and Voss (2002) conclude that quality management practices have a significant effect on quality and operational performance, but the impact of quality management on business performance is not always significant. This finding may suggest that higher level of business performance may not be achieved through improving internal processes; rather, it is intertwined with the inter-organizational processes and practices. While in the traditional view toward quality a product and/or service approach is utilized, in the supply chain setting improving inter-organizational processes should be the focus of quality (Trent, 2001; Robinson and Malhotra, 2005). This suggests that there should be a shift in quality from the product and/or service to the process.Decision making. Previous studies have shown that top management is the major driver of quality who leads the quality initiative (Flynn et al., 1994; Wilson and Collier, 2000; Kaynak, 2003). This phenomenon is well explained through emphasizing top management role on leading organizational change (Boeker, 1997a, b). In the inter-organizations setting, the network perspective emphasizes the importance of an organization's social context and its position within the network (Burns and Wholey, 1993; Majumdar and Venkataraman, 1998). Therefore, in the supply chain, decision regarding quality is not driven by the top management; rather it is influenced by the network.Theoretical lenses. The RBV argues that superior firm performance is the result of the ability of firms to accumulate resources and capabilities that are rare, valuable, and difficult to imitate (Rumelt, 1984; Barney, 1991). In this view, RBV focuses on a firm as the unit of analysis. Several scholars have argued that the RBV of the firm overlooks the importance of resources that are embedded in a network of an organization (Barney, 1991; Black and Boal, 1994; Dyer and Singh, 1998; Doh, 2000). Alternatively, the relational view of competitive advantage claims that inter-firm linkages may be a source of competitive advantage. This view suggests that a firm's critical resources may span firm boundaries and may be embedded in inter-organizational resources and routines (Dyer and Singh, 1998). As we move across and beyond the scope of the firm, the sources of competitive advantage are embedded in the network. This requires looking at quality from the relational view. Table I provides a summary of different characteristics of quality management and supply chain quality.To this end, it is apparent that there are conceptual and theoretical differences between traditional approaches towards quality and supply chain quality. To fully address the notion of quality in the supply chain, the paper focuses on strategic supply chains. Working with a few high quality suppliers and developing close strategic planning processes are the main characteristics of strategic supply chains (Chen et al., 2004; Yeung, 2008). In addition, due to their emphasis on quality and process improvement, organizations developing strategic supply chain systems can maintain their competitiveness through emphasizing supply chain quality (Krause, 1999; Liker and Choi, 2004). Therefore, understanding quality issues in strategic supply chains is critical to the success of the firm and the sustainability of the partnership.3.1 The relationship between quality and SCM\n4. Quality management and organizational learning: Quality management practices that result in knowledge creation enhances organizational performance (Linderman et al., 2004). Quality management literature characterizes quality in two dimensions: control and learning (Sitkin et al., 1994). Effective implementation of quality management is contingent upon a balance between control and learning, achieving conflicting goals of stability and reliability with those of exploration and innovation. The effectiveness of quality management relies on the coexistence of these two incompatible approaches to quality (Leonard-Barton, 1992). To the extent that a balance between control and learning has been maintained a sustainable quality strategy will be achieved.Several scholars have pointed to the link between quality and process improvement (Fine, 1986; Fine and Porteus, 1989; Marcellus and Dada, 1991; Li and Rajagopalan, 1998). One of the first studies that related quality and learning was conducted by Fine (1986). He found that over time the organization optimal quality level increases due to the learning effect. In another study, Fine and Porteus (1989) argued that decreasing the uncertainty of the process (making the potential improvements more predictable) has a desirable effect on process improvement. Li and Rajagopalan (1998) analytically showed that quality improved over time, while process improvement effort and quality assurance effort decreased over time.Deming (1982) argued that knowledge and learning are crucial mechanisms for sustaining a competitive advantage, especially during periods of rapid change. Through focus on learning, knowledge creation, and processes innovation, the quality movement was able to address the adaptability of the organization in highly uncertain and changing environments (Sitkin et al., 1994). In fact, in highly uncertain contexts, quality management needs to focus on experimentation (learning) more than decreasing error rates (control). According to Sitkin et al. (1994, p. 546) in uncertain environments quality management:[...] stresses improvement in learning capability which includes effectively identifying new skills and resources to pursue, the ability to explore these new areas, and the capacity to learn from that exploration.Previous research on quality management argues that the goal of quality management needs to be balanced depending upon the context. Due to the complexity and uncertainty in supply chain relationships, effective management of quality in a supply chain environment requires understanding, development and enhancing inter-organizational learning. Accordingly, it is proposed that:P3. Supplier's quality management practices have a positive effect on inter-organizational learning in the supply chain.P4. Buyer's quality management practices have a positive effect on inter-organizational learning in the supply chain.4.1 Learning perspective of quality management in the supply chain\n5. Supply chain quality practices: In this section, several practices are introduced in order to address the learning perspective of supply chain quality. At the firm level, these practices address core quality management principles that emphasize continuous improvement. At the supply chain level, the emphasis is on relationship management and inter-organizational learning. Relationship management and effective buyer-supplier collaboration facilitate the development of inter-organizational processes and inter-organizational learning in the supply chain.Trust\n6. Proposed conceptual model of supply chain quality: Based on the review of the literature and the above discussion several practices associated with supply chain quality management have been identified. Figure 1 shows the conceptual model for supply chain quality practices.With reference to the buyer-supplier quality model two sets of quality practices are identified: one set is firm-level quality practices, practices that are traditionally associated with the quality management within a firm (e.g. top management support, training, employee involvement, and customer satisfaction). With reference to P1 and P2, there is a positive link between firm-level quality practices with two performance outcomes (supply chain satisfaction and performance). In addition, we realize that buyer-supplier quality practices also enhance performance. The process perspective of quality is critical to the implementation of buyer-supplier level quality practices. To the extent that learning is emphasized and a process approach towards quality is utilized, these practices enable firms to improve their inter-organizational processes and practices. Learning is emphasized through socialization, cooperation and collaboration. Supply chain level quality emphasizes these practices through trust, governance, information integration and process integration. The inter-organizational learning literature underline the effect of collaboration on the learning capability of the firm through institutionalizing the experiences created in inter-organizational learning processes (Lane and Lubatkin, 1998; Larsson et al., 1998).An important aspect of the proposed model is the relationship between firm-level and supply chain level quality practices. The two-sided arrow indicates that firm-level and supply chain level quality practices influence each other. This suggests that improvement in buyer-supplier quality practices enhances firm-level practices. Additionally, firm-level quality improvement has a positive effect on buyer-supplier quality practices. Organizations need to emphasize both sets of practices so that they can maintain their competitive edge through emphasizing quality.\n7. Summary and findings: With reference to the existing literature on quality and SCM, the propositions and the conceptual model for supply chain quality are the primary contributions of the paper. The paper makes several important contributions to the literature in quality and SCM. First, the paper addresses the effect of firm-level and supply chain level quality practices on the success of the supply chain. In that regard, the proposed framework extends our insight to design, develop, and maintain quality practices across the supply chain. Second, the study proposes a learning perspective of supply chain quality. Several firm level practices (e.g. process improvement) and supply chain level practices (e.g. information integration and process integration) were identified and introduced in order to support the development of inter-firm processes and routines and ensure inter-organizational learning. Third, the proposed model also acknowledges the influence and significance of risk management in the supply chain where it recognizes development of trust as an important practice that can minimize risk in buyer-supplier relationship. It is generally believed that trust reduces risk, uncertainty and opportunistic behaviors thereby improves the quality of the relationship (Nyaga and Whipple, 2011). Finally, the proposed model emphasizes integration and collaboration across supply chain by proposing two practices: information integration and process integration.7.1 Limitations and future research\n8. Conclusion: The importance of supply chain quality practices and its relevance to management practices has received more attention in the literature in recent years. The conceptualization of buyer-supplier quality practices is the first step to develop supply chain level quality practices that enable both the buyer and the supplier to improve their quality practices.The learning perspective of quality management was used to address buyer-supplier quality practices. With respect to the learning perceptive of quality, several firm level and supply chain level practices have been identified in order to enhance supply chain quality, leading to higher level of performance and satisfaction of the supply chain. The propositions provide the basis for testable hypotheses which can be empirically tested and validated. Appropriately testing the hypotheses should add to our understanding of the relationships between buyer-supplier quality practices, and their effect on supply chain satisfaction and performance.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to develop a theoretical base for supply chain quality from the learning perspective. Through utilizing the relational view of inter-organizational competitive advantage, the paper identifies learning-driven practices that influence buyer-supplier performance outcomes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A review of the literature in quality management, supply chain management and strategic management is conducted to develop key practices associated with quality management in a supply chain environment.\nFindings: - The findings suggest that quality management facilitates cooperative learning and improves inter-organizational learning processes. At the supply chain level, it enhances supply chain satisfaction and supply chain performance.\nOriginality/value: - The study contributes to our understanding of quality management practices within a supply chain environment from an inter-organizational learning perspective. It extends the concept of quality to the supply chain through focusing on key practices that influence the quality of supply chain relationships.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An exploratory study on quality costs in Turkish manufacturing companies	[ "Accounting", "Quality costs", "Surveys", "Manufacturing industries", "Turkey" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Superville and Gupta (2001, p. 419) point out the importance of quality by saying \"quality is an important strategic dimension and a key competitive weapon that can not be ignored by any corporation\".A competitive product or service based on a balance between quality and cost factors is the principle goal of responsible management. The analysis of quality-related costs provides a method of assessing the overall effectiveness of the management of quality and of determining problem areas, opportunities, savings and action priorities (Oakland and Porter, 1994, p. xiii).Besterfield et al. (1999, p. 142) state that the cost of poor quality is no different than other costs so that it can be programmed, budgeted, measured, and analyzed to help in attaining the objectives for better quality and customer satisfaction at less cost. They add \"a reduction in quality costs leads to increased profit\".The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 provides study background. Section 3 cites study objectives and questions. Section 4 presents scope and methodology of the study. Section 5 discusses and analyzes the results. Finally, Section 6 concludes the paper.\n2. Study background: Quality costs have been traditionally defined as all expenditures associated with ensuring that products conform to specifications or with producing products that do not conform (Ittner, 1996, p. 114).Schiffauerova and Thomson (2006) classify quality cost models in their study into four: P-A-F (prevention-appraisal-failure) or Crosby's model, opportunity cost models, process cost models, and activity-based costing (ABC) models.However, in the literature, widespread classification of quality costs is P-A-F categorization (Albright and Roth, 1992; Hindi and Rich, 1999; and Suver et al., 1992). In this categorization, quality costs are classified as prevention, appraisal, internal failure, and external failure costs.Lin and Johnson (2004) define the above-cited four terms as follows: prevention costs are spending on quality engineering, technical support and training to ensure that the design specifications are met; appraisal costs are the costs incurred in detecting the defective products before they reach customers; internal failure costs are the costs incurred as a consequence of identifying defective products during the appraisal process, such as scrap, costs of rework on defective products and downtime caused by the defects; and external failure costs occur when defective products have been delivered to customers, such as warranty costs of repairs and replacements, product recall and any costs stemmed from legal actions taken by customers.Increasing product quality results in higher profits because costs are decreased and productivity and market share are improved (Roth and Morse, 1988; Albright and Roth, 1992; and Superville and Gupta, 2001).Roth and Morse (1988) assert that accountants can make valuable contributions to their companies or clients if they use their expertise in developing and operating quality cost systems which will collect and report quality cost data.Quality costs are likely to range from 5 percent to 25 percent of sales turnover depending on the type of industry, business situation or service, the view taken by the organization of what is or is not a quality-related cost, the approach to total quality management (TQM), and the extent to which continuous improvement is practiced in the organization (Williams et al., 1999).As a result of implementing successful quality programs, corporations like Xerox, General Electric, and Motorola have reduced their quality costs from 30 percent of sales to 2 percent of sales while improving the quality of their products (Superville and Gupta, 2001, p. 419).Bottorff, (1997, p. 33) emphasizes the significance of implementing COQ systems saying:Today, COQ systems are regarded as an essential tool in managing quality. In fact, COQ has been incorporated into the bodies of knowledge of the certification programs of such professional societies as ASQC (American Society for Quality Control), the Institute of Management Accountants, and the American Production and Inventory Control Society. In addition, numerous business and engineering graduate schools worldwide have integrated COQ into their curricula.He lists in his article several roadblocks that companies may encounter when implementing COQ systems. He says \"If companies can avoid such roadblocks and implement successful COQ systems, the benefits are numerous\". The advantages of having a COQ system according to Bottorff (1997, p. 35) are:* Quality data are more readily accepted because they are gathered and analysed with the accounting department in a team environment.* The COQ system aids in the evaluation of capital investment alternatives.* The COQ system helps justify and steer investments in prevention activities, which lowers quality costs. It also helps justify and steer other quality improvement efforts and investments.* The COQ system leads to the development of more advanced performance measures in the areas of customer satisfaction, production, and design to better target indirect quality costs.* Return on investment and sales are improved while reducing costs.\n3. Study objectives and questions: The main objective of this study is to investigate five points:1. the scale of cost of quality in Turkish companies, as percentage of sales turnover;2. the responsibility for measuring quality costs;3. whether Turkish companies implement a COQ system which enables tracking quality costs in the accounting system;4. how the company performance has changed after adopting a cost of quality system; and5. the purposes of cost of quality measuring and reporting.In relation to these objectives, the following five research questions were prepared:RQ1. What is the perceived scale of cost of quality (as percentage of sales turnover) in Turkish companies?RQ2. Which departments are responsible for measuring quality costs?RQ3. Do Turkish companies implement a cost of quality system? If \"no\", do they plan to implement in the future?RQ4. How has the company performance changed after implementing a cost of quality system?RQ5. What are the most important objectives behind cost of quality measuring and reporting?\n4. Scope and methodology: A postal questionnaire survey was conducted with the top 500 Turkish manufacturing firms specified by the Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ICI) for the year 2005. These firms are selected and ranked by ICI according to production-based sales. The questionnaire survey was adapted from Roden and Dale (2000), Ross (1993), and Oliver and Qu (1999). The responses were evaluated statistically using SPSS software and the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program. Out of those top 500 companies, 15 firms declined to declare their names in ICI report. Therefore, another 15 firms were added to the list from the \"Second Top 500 Companies\". Hence, the total sample consisted of 500 manufacturing firms.\n5. Results and analysis: 5.1 Descriptive statistics\n6. Conclusion: The majority of the responses indicated that perceptions of the scale of quality costs as a percentage of sales turnover are centred between 0-10 percent. This scale is not high, compared to scale of quality costs ranging from 5 to 25 percent (Williams et al., 1999). This scale could be changeable according to industry type, firm size, maturity of quality program etc. But, this reasoning requires further investigation.All six departments proposed in the question have a considerable responsibility for measuring quality costs. However, the highest responsibility belongs to both the \"accounting/finance\" and \"quality\" departments. These two departments can play a key and leading role in the measurement of quality costs.As a result of the Pearson correlation analysis some significant associations were found as follows:* a positive association between COQ-system implementation and sales turnover;* a positive association between COQ-system implementation and quality award ownership;* a strong positive association between COQ-system implementation and TQM adoption;* a weak positive association between COQ-system implementation and ISO certification ownership; and* a weak positive association between COQ-system implementation and number of employees.Hence, I can conclude that companies implementing quality initiatives are also COQ system implementers. This is a significant sign that the companies are measuring the cost of quality-related activities.After COQ system adoption, the following changes were observed in business operations of the responding companies; customer complaints decreased, rework and scrap decreased, warranty expenditures decreased, failure costs decreased, and sales volume increased.The findings indicated that the ultimate objectives behind COQ measuring and reporting in descending importance are overall quality improvement, setting cost reduction targets and measuring progress, improving control of quality activities, identifying high-cost problem areas, measuring effectiveness of quality system, strategic quality planning and budgeting and measurement of improvement of performance against costs. However, further investigation indicated that accountants are more supportive of the objectives proposed in this study, compared to quality professionals.The major limitation of the study is that these results are valid for manufacturing companies in Turkey. Therefore, the results should not be generalized to other sectors.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which Turkish manufacturing companies implement a cost of quality (COQ) system, to evaluate how company performance has changed after COQ system implementation, and to identify the objectives behind COQ measuring and reporting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The methodology of the study was a postal questionnaire survey. The survey was conducted with the top 500 industrial enterprises in Turkey specified by the Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ICI) for the year 2005. These firms are selected and ranked by ICI according to production-based sales.\nFindings: - The findings indicated that almost half (49.5 percent) of responding firms currently implement a COQ system. After COQ system implementation, the following remarkable changes were observed in business operations of the responding companies: customer complaints decreased; rework and scrap decreased; warranty expenditures decreased; failure costs decreased; and sales volume increased. The most important three objectives behind COQ measuring and reporting are: overall quality improvement; setting cost reduction targets and measuring progress; and improving control of quality activities.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The sample is restricted to the top 500 industrial enterprises in Turkey. As the data in this study were collected from manufacturing companies, the findings should not be generalized to other sectors.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides the general practices and perceptions of the largest Turkish manufacturing companies on quality costs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Employee empowerment: factors affecting the consequent success or failure (Part II)	[ "Empowerment", "Transformational leadership", "Transactional leadership", "Leadership style", "Organizational culture" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nLeadership: Part I of this paper explored: empowerment and empowerment models; organisational culture, company size and hierarchical position and concluded with psychological empowerment. Part II begins with leadership that plays an important role in the success of an organisation and is becoming increasingly important in a global economy where competition is fierce and technology is changing (Birasnav et al., 2011). Keeping employees engaged, satisfied and focused on a common corporate vision is critical. As Seaborne (2003) simply stated, \"Properly applied, empowerment allows the employee to control a portion of their destiny. It is this small portion of one's own destiny being under their direct control that enables employees to produce beyond their current capabilities, to sail away from familiar shores and enter unfamiliar waters, to find new strengths, new knowledge, and new ways of achieving their own goals\".\nTransformational leadership: In this section of the literature review we will examine the link between various leadership styles, specifically transactional and transformational, and their relationship with employees' sense of empowerment and the consequent outcomes.\nPositive influence of transformational leadership on empowerment: Transformational leadership can be associated with many positive outcomes in an organisation, such as enhanced performance, higher social support perceptions, greater task-specific self-efficacy beliefs, lower negative affect and lower threat appraisals (Hanna, 2012) and, last but not least, greater perceptions of individual empowerment. As noted by Bass (1995) \"truly empowered followers are more likely to have a transformational leader, and empowered followers typically perform better and have better personal development\". The information presented below will examine this claim in more depth, through the study of various empirical discussions and conclusions, by summarizing the effect of transformational leadership and empowerment on the following: job satisfaction and success, negative variables, organisational commitment and trust.\nTransactional leaders: Transactional leaders differ greatly in their actions and behaviours from transformational leaders. Where transformational leadership focuses on building employee relations, trust, motivation and focusing on employees' development, transactional leadership focuses on contingent reward systems based on performance and achievement of specific tasks or obligations (Men, 2010). However, research conducted on this subject provide conclusions to both schools of thought; that there are positive and negative impacts on psychological empowerment when related to transactional leadership styles. Below, we will examine transactional leadership and these two schools of thought in more detail.\nEffects of transactional leadership on empowerment: As noted by several researchers, transactional leadership is characterised by three factors: contingent rewards, active management-by-exception and passive management-by-exception. Gkorezis and Petridou (2008) proposed that certain elements of active transactional leadership (such as information feedback, recognition and financial rewards ) are positively related to psychological empowerment and \"as such, both contingent reward and active management-by-exception leadership provides information such as goals and positive and negative feedback to followers\" (Bass, 1985), which can lead employees to change the perceptions of their competence levels as well their level of impact relating to the amount of influence they may have on organisational outcomes. Taking the aforementioned conclusions and referencing Spreitzer's (1995) previous theory of psychological empowerment, where competence and impact are critical components of psychological empowerment (Spreitzer, 1995), the link between contingent rewards and active management-by-exception and psychological empowerment become evident.\nDiscussion: Empowerment at the organisational level\nConclusion: In conclusion, the three main areas that affect the outcome of empowerment initiatives have been explored. First, the macro level, where it has been determined that a team based structure and a culture based on trust and open communication are the key factors affecting the successful implementation of empowerment. If the organisation is not fully vested in the transformation of its processes to promote empowerment on the behalf of its employees the initiative will be destined to fail before it even begins because employees will not accept the new responsibilities if they feel they are not fully supported to take decisive action. Second, an overview of the importance of management and more specifically leadership styles was reviewed. Although, many positive points can be made for transformational leadership, transactional leadership cannot be discounted as the research shows that the right combination of incentives and rewards, coupled with a certain organisational culture can enhance empowerment among certain types of employees. The third and most complex area that was explored was how individuals' intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics affect their predisposition to empowerment. Although there is limited empirical data, we postulate that the deciding factors regarding the success or failure of empowering an employee originate from the employees themselves. Even though employees can adapt to new corporate cultures and be transformed by their leaders, their core traits remain the same and will have a decisive impact on the eventual success or failure of empowerment initiatives.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to uncover and synthesise the main factors that affects and determines the success or failure of empowerment initiatives from a macro and micro perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A thorough review of scholarly articles and empirical evidence was conducted on the topic of empowerment in order to bring to light the correlation between the different factors affecting structural empowerment, psychological empowerment and the effect of leadership style.\nFindings: It has been determined that a team based structure and a culture based on trust and open communication are the key factors affecting the successful implementation of empowerment. Furthermore, although, many positive points can be made for transformational leadership, transactional leadership cannot be discounted as the research shows that the right combination of incentives and rewards, coupled with a certain organisational culture can breed empowerment among certain types of employees.\nResearch limitations/implications: Going forward in terms of research on the increasingly popular concept of empowerment, it is believed that a more fully integrated model should be developed. Although some models do incorporate analysis of various macro and micro variables a more comprehensive and encompassing model would prove useful. Such a model would allow for a far more in-depth understanding of empowerment and its defining factors and would provide an invaluable tool to organisations wishing to implement empowerment in the most optimal way.\nPractical implications: In applying a combination of theories on empowerment, leadership and individuals as part of an organisation, the authors posit that empowerment initiatives are predisposed to either success or failure. In order for empowerment to permeate the corporate culture and prove successful, the predispositions of decentralised management and personal ambition are strong factors of success.\nSocial implications: The authors postulate that the deciding factors regarding the success or failure of empowering an employee originate from the employees themselves. Even though employees can adopt new corporate cultures and be transformed by their leaders, their core traits remain the same and will have a decisive impact on the eventual success or failure of empowerment initiatives.\nOriginality/value: Going forward in terms of research on the increasingly popular concept of empowerment, it is believed that a more fully integrated model should be developed. Although some models do incorporate analysis of various macro and micro variables, a more comprehensive and encompassing model would prove useful.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Strategic orientation of servitization in manufacturing firms and its impacts on firm performance	[ "Service-dominant logic", "Firm performance", "Service innovation", "Servitization", "Strategic orientation", "Manufacturing system" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: An increasing number of manufacturers have realized that competitive advantage may be gained from servitization (Bustinza et al., 2017), which is the innovation of a manufacturer's capabilities and processes to move from selling products to selling integrated product-service offerings that deliver value in use (Baines et al., 2011). Since this strategy has been proven to bring benefits to manufacturing firms, they are increasingly attempting to create greater value and competitive advantage through services rather than physical products (Settanni et al., 2014).\n2. Theoretical background and research framework: Servitization is usually considered from a strategic perspective (Kastalli and Van Looy, 2013). Therefore, the proposed framework of this research is mainly based on theories pertaining to strategy. The conceptual framework (see Figure 1) is grounded in several theories, including the strategic fit model, the strategic innovation paradigm and the social capital theory of innovation.\n3. Research methodology: The above literature review was primarily used to develop the hypotheses and the research framework. A survey was designed for this research (Forza, 2002), and the data were collected via online survey and analyzed using SEM techniques.\n4. Data analysis and results: SEM was used to analyze the data and its relationships (Hair et al., 2006). A two-step approach was followed to test the hypotheses (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988) via AMOS 22.0. In step 1 the measurement model was tested to establish the reliability and validity of the scales used in this research, and the remaining structural relationships were tested in step 2.\n5. Discussion and implications: 5.1 Theoretical contributions\n6. Conclusion: This research develops a strategic fit framework of implementing servitization to demonstrate the relationships between strategic orientation and SI capability, and the resulting impacts on firm performance. As with every study, this research is not without its limitations. One of these is that the research was only conducted in the context of manufacturers in Southeast China. Hence, future research could try to collect data from different cultural backgrounds to investigate whether cultural background affects the results presented here. Such evidence would enrich the understanding and knowledge obtained. Second, empirical case studies would help to support and verify the results derived from this research.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide implementation insights and implications regarding the strategic orientations of servitization by testing its impacts on firm performance, including financial performance and customer service performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Empirical research is conducted using an online survey disseminated to manufacturing firms in Southeast China. This research develops and verifies a strategic fit framework to understand the relationship between the strategic orientation of servitization and service innovation (SI), and its resulting impacts on firm performance.\nFindings: The results show that service orientation (SO) has direct positive impacts on firm performance in the manufacturing sector. Customer orientation (CO) and learning orientation (LO) have no direct impact on firm performance, although they have indirect impacts on it via the mediating role of SI capability. Moreover, SO has a similar indirect impact on firm performance via SI capability.\nResearch limitations/implications: The survey focuses only on China; future studies should verify whether different cultural backgrounds impact the research results.\nPractical implications: The results suggest that firms should build up three strategic orientations (SO, CO and LO) for implementing servitization to facilitate SI capability and, thus, to improve firm performance.\nOriginality/value: This research contributes to enhancing the theory of servitization by developing a strategic fit model of servitization and revealing the impact mechanism of servitization in the manufacturing sector.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Agent-based modeling of availability for complex multiple units systems	[ "Availability modelling", "Agent-based component model", "Agent-based maintenance policy model", "Complex multiple units system", "Multi-agent modelling" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Availability is one of the most important indexes for measuring system/equipment working conditions. It is the probability to which the focused system/equipment is in a specified operable state at a random start time of a mission (Li and Ma, 2011). Availability is divided into instant availability and stable availability (Li and Ma, 2011). Instant availability is the probability that system is operable at a given time, and stable availability is the mean value of instant availability over an infinite time span (Yang, 2009). Modeling and prediction of system availability is a hot research topic in terms of reliability and maintenance engineering. Traditionally, single-unit or multi-unit systems are the usual subjects in the papers of availability modeling. In this paper, the \"unit\" or \"component\" could represent one part, one assembly or a piece of equipment, which is considered as a whole from the standpoint of maintenance engineering.\n2. Multi-agent based availability model of CMUS: In this paper, the considered CMUS is composed of different maintenance entities, such as maintained equipment/components, maintenance staff, maintenance tools, and maintenance fields. Three different types of interactions among components are defined in literature: economic, structural, and stochastic dependence (Nicolai and Dekker, 2006). Due to the modeling complexity, stochastic dependence is not included in this paper.\n3. Multi-agent programming for availability simulation of CMUS: The techniques of multi-agent modeling are widely used in research of many complex systems associated with economy, military, control, and society, etc. There exist several simulation platforms of multi-agent systems at present, such as Swarm, RePast, Mason, NetLogo, and AnyLogic which are popular because of their general applicability and modeling schemes (Chen et al., 2011). However, the programming ability of C++ or Java is necessary when using these platforms. Thus, many researchers fail to utilize them when trying to implement multi-agent simulation. MATLAB is a famous technical computing environment with a great number of function libraries and toolboxes, and it is easy to learn. Some multi-agent simulation systems are developed based on MATLAB, e.g. Hupkens and Thaens (2004). Therefore, the proposed agent-based system for availability modeling and prediction of CMUS is simulated based on MATLAB.\n4. Numerical example: It is supposed that the considered system is composed of seven different components, and it is serial. These components are numbered from 1 to 7. For Component 1 to Component 5, the block replacement policy (Wang, 2002) is applied, replacing them preventively at the fixed intervals without the consideration of their failure events. Condition-based maintenance is utilized for Component 6 and Component 7, which is the control limit policy.\n5. Conclusions: The availability modeling method of CMUS based on the multi-agent technique is proposed in this paper. The agent-based models of components, maintenance policies, maintenance tools, maintenance fields, and maintenance staff are developed. The blackboard architecture is utilized to help these agents to communicate with each other. Therefore, the availability of the CMUS could be simulated and predicted based on the agent-based failure and maintenance modeling and simulation theory. Finally, the numerical example shows the applicability of the proposed agent-based modeling method to modeling and analyzing availability of CMUS.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose an availability modeling method of complex multiple units system (CMUS) based on the multi-agent technique.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on the multi-agent technique, this paper describes the availability model structure for CMUS and develops agent-based models of components, maintenance policies, maintenance tools, maintenance fields, and maintenance staff, as well as the communication method among the different agents. On the basis of the agent-based availability modeling theory, the availability simulation scheme of CMUS is given using MATLAB. Thus, the availability modeling theory of CMUS and its simulation method are developed. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed availability modeling method, a numerical example is given.\nFindings: The proposed agent-based modeling method is applicable to availability modeling of CMUS, including the modeling of component failure, maintenance tools/fields/staff, maintenance policy, and structural/economic dependence among components.\nPractical implications: As a bottom-top, modular, expandable, and reusable modeling theory, the agent-based modeling method might be useful for availability modeling of different CMUSs in reality.\nOriginality/value: The multi-agent technique is introduced into availability modeling of multi-component systems in this paper. Thus, it is possible to model failure of many components, maintenance policies, maintenance tools, maintenance fields, and maintenance staff together for availability analysis of complex systems of equipment.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The dimensions of prescription drug brand personality as identified by consumers	[ "Branding", "Brand personality", "Pharmaceutical marketing", "Scale development" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\nIntroduction: The global pharmaceutical industry has witnessed turbulent times in recent years. Following robust double-digit annual growth rates, the tides have turned and industry dynamics have changed drastically. The economic recession that began in 2007 had a significant impact on the health of the industry and initiated a downward spiral. Annual growth rates in 2010 were a meager 1.9 percent (Zhong, 2012), and the outlook remains bleak for the brand name pharmaceutical industry.\nStudy objective: This study endeavors to establish potential traits that describe prescription drug brand personalities as identified by consumers. Do consumers use human personality traits to describe prescription drugs such as Viagra, Lipitor, or Advair? Specifically, two research questions are examined:\nLiterature review: Branding and brand assets\nHypotheses: In light of the industry dynamics and the necessity for prescription drugs to develop a sustainable point of differentiation, consideration is given to brand-building, thus moving beyond the traditional functional attributes and creating expressive or emotional values (Hall and Jones, 2007). Although preliminary, there is evidence to suggest that the brand personality construct may be generally applied to pharmaceutical products. Research conducted by Kapferer (1998, 2012) concludes that generalist doctors and specialists are able to attribute human personality traits to medicines. Using a scale of 15 personality traits such as caring, empathetic, and creative, he established a correlation between prescription levels and certain personality traits. Similarly, a recent survey conducted in Mumbai on the existence of brand personalities of some leading over-the counter pharmaceutical brands, revealed that consumers do attribute brand personalities to over-the-counter medicines (Mala, 2011).\nStudy design: This study consisted of three preparatory stages necessary for the development of a scale:\nMethodology: Subject selection and composition\nResults: Identification of brand personality\nDiscussion: Prescription brand personality\nImplications: Managerial implications\nLimitations and areas for future research: In this study, data were aggregated across subjects and brands and resulted in a \"stacked\" data structure of brand evaluations. As a result of this design, variation between brands and subjects was discounted, and meaningful relationships may have been lost. In an ideal scenario, each respondent would have provided brand ratings for each of the 15 brands, across the 22 personality traits, resulting in a three-mode data analysis. This design was unfortunately not feasible, due to risk of fatigue, and lack of familiarity with all brands.\nConclusions: The foundation of prescription brand personality has been built throughout this work. This research has made meaningful contributions to the pharmaceutical industry (marketing practitioners and consumers), and to the theoretical study of brand personality.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The aim of this paper is to describe the development and validation of a two-dimensional scale measuring prescription drug brand personality as identified by consumers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 483 US respondents rated a subset of 15 well-known prescription medications on 22 different personality traits. A total of 2,245 individual brand evaluations were generated and subsequently analyzed using exploratory factor analysis.\nFindings: The findings revealed that consumers are in fact able to attribute human personality traits to prescription drugs. A stable and generalizable two-dimensional (competence and innovativeness) scale was established: the Prescription Brand Personality Scale (PBPS).\nResearch limitations/implications: The \"stacked\" data structure required to aggregate data across subjects discounts the variation between brands and subjects. The brands included in the study are relatively few compared to consumer brands.\nPractical implications: This research has important implications for the expansion of pharmaceutical branding strategies and demonstrates the potential of using brand personality as an effective positioning and differentiation tool.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to investigate the existence of prescription drug brand personalities as perceived by consumers as well as the development of the PBPS, specifically for prescription drug brands. The findings have important implications for the development of innovative marketing strategies, and this study lays the groundwork for further investigation into the antecedents and consequences of prescription drug brand personality.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Human trafficking in hotels: an "invisible" threat for a vulnerable industry	[ "Hotels", "Crime", "Vulnerability", "Human trafficking", "MAVUS" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Trafficking in human beings (THB) is a form of modern slavery that is a rapidly growing global phenomenon (UNODC, 2016). THB involves the recruitment, transportation and the sexual or labour exploitation of vulnerable persons by force or coercion (Bales, 2003). Estimates of the extent of human trafficking vary enormously. The International Labour Organization identifies 21 million annual victims (ILO, 2014), whilst the Walk Free Foundation (2017) reports as many as 45.8 million victims. Whatever the real figure, this gross violation of human rights affects most countries around the world (Interpol, 2017) despite the widespread introduction of legislation to criminalise it (UNODC, 2016).\nTrafficking in human beings: THB is a distinct criminal offence that is often confused with human smuggling of migrants (Tepelus, 2008). One of the most comprehensive definitions of THB, provided by the European Union (2011) is as follows:\nResearch design: As part of a wider European Commission-funded project aiming to propose ways to combat THB in the hotel sector, Europe served as the research context where data collection focussed on four regions: Central and Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, Western Europe and Southern Europe. Each of the four project partners (two in UK, one in Finland and one in Romania) was assigned with a specific region. The data sources for the study included (Vander Beken et al., 2005) statistics about the sector (e.g. size in terms of rooms, number of people employed, size of key hotel groups and room demand and supply); secondary research on THB in Europe (academic literature, police and non-governmental organisation [NGO] reports, GRETA[1] reports, etc.); expert advice (from the project's advisory board with experience in combating THB and understanding of the hotel sector); and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholder informants in the project partners' countries.\nFindings and discussion: The study revealed different types of THB occurring within the hotel industry as depicted in Table II. The specific factors that influenced the vulnerability of hotels to these different types of THB at the macro-, meso- and micro-levels are identified in the following sections.\nConclusions: This study sought to contribute to our understanding of THB within the hotel industry by analysing hotel sector vulnerability. Using the MAVUS framework, it adopted a systematic approach to identify environmental factors that create opportunities for traffickers and industry characteristics which facilitate exploitation of victims within hotels. In answering the three research questions posed, the study also identified a number of different types of THB occurring within the industry and the macro-, meso- and micro-level factors that contribute to hotel vulnerability.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to identify and analyse the hotel sector's vulnerabilities that human traffickers exploit to use hotels as conduits for trafficking in human beings (THB).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using the Method for the Assessment of the Vulnerability of Sectors framework of sector vulnerability analysis, the study adopted a qualitative approach using environmental scanning and semi-structured key stakeholder interviews in three European countries: UK, Finland and Romania.\nFindings: The study identifies the types of THB occurring within the industry and the specific macro-, meso- and micro-level factors that increase hotel vulnerability to trafficking for sexual exploitation, labour exploitation or both.\nResearch limitations/implications: Given the sensitivity of the topic, the number of interviewees is limited as is the generalisability of the findings.\nPractical implications: The framework developed serves as a practical tool for independent or chain-affiliated hotels to use to assess their vulnerability to human trafficking for both sexual and labour exploitation.\nSocial implications: The framework will assist hotel professionals to assess their vulnerability to human trafficking and identify specific and proactive measures to combat this crime within their business.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to empirically explore human trafficking in the hotel sector and to apply an integrated theoretical lens to examine macro-, meso- and micro-level sector vulnerabilities to a crime. It contributes to the authors' understanding of why hotels are vulnerable to human trafficking for both sexual and labour exploitation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Understand what your maintenance service partners value	[ "Collaboration", "Value creation", "Relationship value", "Maintenance services", "Value element" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Maintenance management has moved from a cost-centric view toward a more value-centric perspective where the service is not only considered as a cost factor but it can also create additional value (Liyanage and Kumar, 2003; Parida and Kumar, 2006; Pintelon and Parodi-Herz, 2008). In addition, the maintenance field is constantly evolving, as in-house maintenance organizations have moved partly toward partnerships in different company networks where the actors (i.e. customer companies, service providers and equipment providers) operate (Ahonen et al., 2010; Riis et al., 2007). The service aspect is now a common part of maintenance. In order to improve the competitiveness of the service relationships, it is essential for the organizations to gain mutual understanding of what the value creating elements in the service network are, so that benefits like performance efficiency and reliability can be achieved (e.g. Barry and Terry, 2008; Lapierre, 2000; Ulaga, 2003). Mutual understanding helps to avoid disagreements, lack of quality and sub-optimization between the service partners and highlight the positive effects of service collaboration instead, so that all parties can benefit from the service relationship.\n2. Value creation in maintenance services: Maintenance focus moving from cost-centric to value-centric\n3. Methodology: Design and procedure\n4. Findings: Factor analysis\n5. Discussion: Value creation\n6. Conclusions: This paper contributes to the value creation and industrial service development literature by providing insight into the value-creating elements of maintenance services. The study shows the value of maintenance services as a multidimensional phenomenon where value is captured with different aspects of relationship synergies, reliability of the service partners, development, availability, service solutions and problem solving ability, EHSQ (environment, health, safety and quality) and adaptability to suit different situations. However, what elements are highlighted varies between the actors in the field; some actors are very transaction-oriented, whereas others are very relation oriented. Therefore, academics and managers should pay attention to the heterogeneity of the actors operating in the field in terms of value creation. Communication and mutual understanding of the value creating strategies is important, so that more complete offerings can be built in industrial service networks.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify what is currently valued in maintenance services. The study first conceptualizes the value construct through an examination of its elements, including both financial and non-financial elements, and second provides insight into its actors' (i.e. customer companies, service providers, equipment providers) attitudes toward value creation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study uses data collected from maintenance service professionals by an online survey. First an explorative factor analysis is conducted to examine the value construct. After this cluster analysis is conducted to define the actors.\nFindings: The empirical findings suggest seven main elements that capture maintenance service value: relationship synergies, reliability of the service partner, development, availability, service solutions and problem solving ability, environment, health, safety and quality, and adaptability to suit different situations. Further analysis reveals that the actors can be divided into three main strategy types: basic, quality- and collaboration-oriented partners.\nOriginality/value: In previous studies the comprehensive nature of maintenance service value has received less attention, and the literature has focused on the technical and financial aspects. This paper provides a new conceptualization of the value creating elements, including also non-financial elements, and offers an integrated measure for the actors to identify the comprehensive value construct around maintenance services. In addition, the findings show that the actors in the field still have varying strategies when considering value creation. Communication and mutual understanding of the value creating elements are important so that right services are carried out and developed with the right partners.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Customers' emotional reactions in the banking industry	[ "Behavioural intentions", "Banking", "Affective commitment", "Customer satisfaction" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the last few years, modern banking has experienced dramatic changes and increasing competition. Expanding portfolios of products and services, progressively more diverse customer requirements and the application of modern information technologies are just some examples of the changes the banking sector has been faced with. In today's challenging economic environment, it is more essential than ever before that banks maintain solid relationships with their clients (Ernst & Young, 2011). According to Barnes (1997), financial service providers appear to be more interested than companies from other sectors in establishing relationships with their customers. Banking managers such as managers of financial services companies have to understand their clients in order to meet their needs and prevent them switching to other banks (Chiu et al., 2005).\nLiterature review and hypotheses: Service quality, image, trust and social bonds\nMethodology: The research was conducted on a sample of 211 respondents - all clients of European banks operating in Serbia. In addition, a convenience sample was used. The respondents were contacted by the interviewer and asked to participate in the study when leaving the bank after conducting a transaction. Respondents who agreed to participate were given an opportunity to take the questionnaires home to reflect on the issues in private and fill in the questionnaires at their own pace. Respondents gave their cell phone numbers to the interviewers, with the understanding that the interviewers would contact them and collect the completed questionnaires within seven days. Out of 260 respondents who agreed to participate in the study, 223 returned completed questionnaires to the interviewers. Following a review of the collected questionnaires, the researchers removed from further analysis 12 incomplete questionnaires. Thus a total number of 211 questionnaires were used in the analysis. Before commencing data collection, the questionnaire was initially tested on a smaller sample of 20 respondents. This preliminary testing was conducted in order to determine possible ambiguities in the questionnaire that could create confusion and uncertainty among the respondents.\nResults: The sample consists almost equally of women and men. Most of the respondents are aged between 32 and 38 years and between 25 and 31 years. It is important to note that the sample consists of respondents of different occupation, like officials, managers and entrepreneurs, professors, engineers and doctors, students, workers, retailers and people involved in other occupations. Table I shows the detailed structure of the sample.\nDiscussion and conclusions: By designing a new model that includes antecedents and consequences of emotional reactions of customers, the present research contributes to theory in the field of services marketing. The model is characterized by its three-tier structure, whereby satisfaction and affective commitment occupy a central position. The model's concept offers the possibility not only to identify the key drivers of emotional reactions, but also to examine the relationship between the emotional reactions and behavioral intentions of customers. Moreover, the emphasis of this research was on the intangible elements of banking services, which are highly valuable in establishing long-term relationships with clients.\nLimitations and future research: The study has several limitations. First, the research was conducted only in the retail-banking sector. It would be interesting to test the proposed model in other service sectors in future research. In particular, it would be useful to test the model in other areas of financial services such as insurance and corporate banking. Second, since this paper emphasizes, among other things, antecedents and consequences of affective commitment, it would be desirable for future research to seek to establish further those variables that are significantly associated with other commitment components. In this context, new models may include normative commitment and continuance commitment. It would also be beneficial to include some other variables such as perceived value or the social responsibility of banks. Moreover, it would be useful for previously used variables of models to be measured by a greater number of items. This would be particularly true for the social bonds variable.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify antecedents and consequences of customers' emotional reactions in the banking industry. In this context, a model based on segmenting all variables into three segments is proposed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research was conducted on a sample of 211 respondents. Data analysis was conducted in AMOS 18. In order to assess the overall model fit, confirmative factor analysis (CFA) was used. To test the research hypotheses, a structural equation model was used.\nFindings: The research results indicate that trust, social bonds, image and service quality are statistically significant drivers of satisfaction. Of these variables, only service quality has no significant impact on affective commitment. Trust stands out as the variable with the greatest impact on customer emotional responses. Satisfaction is also an important determinant of customers' behavioral intentions.\nPractical implications: Results of the present study indicate that management should pay considerable attention to strengthening intangible elements that imply the development of long-term relationships with clients.\nOriginality/value: By designing a new model that includes antecedents and consequences of emotional reactions of customers, the present research contributes to theory in the field of services marketing. The model is characterized by its three-tier structure, whereby satisfaction and affective commitment occupy a central position.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Adverse incidents in gynaecology: anything for doctors?	[ "Gynaecology", "Risk management", "Critical incident technique", "Medical personnel", "Reports", "Patient care" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Risk management is an essential component of clinical governance aiming to reduce harm to patients arising from clinical intervention. Adverse incidents arising from such situations frequently contribute to litigations, complaints and claims against hospitals. These incidents cost the NHS UK PS 400 million in clinical litigation settlements with a potential liability of around PS 2.4 billion in 1998/1999 (Department of Health, 2000). The clinical negligence scheme for trusts (CNST) criteria require that trust status hospitals set up a risk management programme to improve patient care and reduce clinical risk and future litigation (O'Donovan, 1997). Though every hospital has an adverse incident reporting system in most clinical areas, the quality of reporting is believed to be suboptimal. One method of assessing the adequacy of incident reporting is to correlate reported incidents with those that result in complaints, litigation or claims. Gynaecology is a high-risk speciality for adverse incidents. This article aims to evaluate the adequacy of adverse incidents reporting from the Department of gynaecology at a District General Hospital in Manchester, UK over a two-year period between January 2005 and December 2006.\nBackground: Clinical governance is about the ability to produce effective changes to achieve high quality care (Elliott, 2006) for patients. The number of adverse incidents can be an indicator of quality of care and is commonly inversely related to it. Safety is one of the seven important domains of healthcare as recognised by the Department of Health (2004) and is also a very important aspect of quality of care.Risk management is one component of the clinical governance initiative, which aims to identify and analyse adverse incidents in order to recommend and implement procedures to prevent recurrence and/or occurrence of similar situations, thereby improving the quality of care provided. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (2005) have defined risk management as the culture, processes and structures that are directed towards realising potential opportunities while managing adverse effects. Bhatia et al. (2003) argue that an increased level of reporting of critical incident and near misses leads to increased awareness of risk management and good practice within a department.An adverse incident can cause physical or psychological injury to a patient, (Department of Health, 2000) that arises from the medical management but not the underlying disease (Gluck, 2007). The Department of Health document, on adverse events (2000), defines risk as the likelihood, high or low, that somebody or something will be harmed by a hazard (anything that can cause harm) multiplied by the severity of the potential harm. Argent (2001) argues that a risk may lead to an event with a potential not only to damage patients but also to the staff or a corporate organisation be it professionally or financially. Therefore identifying adverse incidents assume an important dimension in the domain of clinical care.Meadows et al. (2005) quote that approximately 10 per cent of patients admitted to UK hospitals will suffer some kind of patient safety incident. These authors go on to say that most of these incidents are minor and transient. However up to half of the severe and fatal ones, which albeit comprise a very small number, are preventable. According to Gluck (2007) it is estimated that nearly 98,000 deaths occur each year in US hospitals due to preventable, adverse events. These incidents put a heavy burden on healthcare systems in terms of litigation and settlements in or out of court.Incident reporting is an integral part of risk management. Every clinical area in hospitals now have a trigger list for reporting incidents which are then subjected to systems analysis before any further action. The scale of risk is identified from a scoring matrix. However, for effective risk management there has to be an effective incident reporting practice.Incident reporting has not lived up to its reputation for improving patient safety (Edozien, 2007). The author explains that most of the reporting is done by the nursing staff while doctors are particularly poor at reporting incidents. Though there are trigger lists for incident reporting, it is impossible to generate an exhaustive menu. Thus many incidents are not captured by the system. Lack of feedback also accounts for poor incident reporting. Therefore, to optimise incident reporting, staff should be aware and motivated coupled with an effective feedback system (Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, 2005).Another reason for low reporting levels of incidents is the predominance of \"blame culture\" (Meadows et al., 2005). The authors substantiate this by saying that in 80 per cent of serious patient safety incidents identified in the UK, the employee is suspended from duty pending investigation. The article contends that more effective handling of suspensions could save the NHS around PS24 million annually.Incident reporting however is not the only way to identify risks. Risks can also be identified from complaints and medico-legal cases (Edozien, 2007). The author cites that a complaint regarding telephone advice following a phone call by a patient is less likely to be identified from a trigger list. Similarly litigation may be initiated without an incident being flagged up by incident trigger list. However, the issue of documenting telephone conversations has been addressed by the Royal College of Surgeons of England (Cowan, 2000).Obstetrics, accident and emergency and operating theatres are known areas of high risk (O'Donovan, 1997). However, Argent (2001) argues that gynaecology is second only to obstetrics in being associated with a high risk of medico-legal activity. Nevertheless, empirical evidence suggests that the gynaecology ward and outpatient department is considered to be a low risk domain, as opposed to the operating theatres.Trafford General Hospital is a District General Hospital in Manchester within the Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust, which serves a population of about 228,600. The trust has a session dedicated to incident reporting at the induction day programme for junior doctors, as suggested by O'Donovan (1997). The hospital incident reporting system has trigger lists and is initiated through forms present in most clinical areas. These forms are then collected and analysed regularly by the risk management team. Further action depends on the analysis outcome.Though it is expected that complaints and litigation would arise from high-risk incidents, this is not necessarily the case. It is believed that some incidents that lead to complaints and litigation are either not reported or are reported inadequately, resulting in a low score. This study was aimed at determining the effectiveness of the incident reporting system applicable to the Department of gynaecology at Trafford General Hospital over a period of two years between January 2005 and December 2006.\nMethodology: The Departments of Clinical Audit and Risk Management were contacted to generate a list of all the adverse incidents reported from gynaecology department (outpatient areas, wards and operating theatres) in the two-year period as stated above. Individual cases of moderate and high-risk incidents were identified. A list of complaints and litigation relating to gynaecology arising from the same time period was requested from the Department of complaints and litigation. These lists were matched to determine the consistency in adverse incident reporting.\nResults: Between January 2005 and December 2006, there were 111 reported adverse incidents. Of these, there was 1 high and 11 moderately high-risk incident as assessed by the hospital risk scoring system (Table I). There were also nine complaints during this time (Table II). All these complaints were investigated and the responses were sent out on time. None of these complaints had a corresponding incident form.Four claims were made during this time period all of which were directly related to surgical procedures. Settlement was reached in one of these while another claim was eventually withdrawn. The remaining two has not yet been litigated. It is also of note that though all of these claims were directly related to surgical procedures, no incident reports were completed with regard to any of the incidents.\nDiscussion: Edozien (2007) explains that risk management systematically identifies factors that could expose patients, staff, visitors and hospital property to harm and puts in place barriers that could minimise the occurrence of harm. The single high-risk adverse event related to a breakdown in communication about a patient during handover between the staff members. The patient did not come to any harm. The nature of the moderately high-risk incidents was distributed between various categories as illustrated in Table III. The maximum number of these incidents occurred in relation to facilities and equipment. On one occasion, elective procedures were cancelled due to lack of beds because of emergency admissions. The two remaining incidents were the result of an inability to obtain a piece of medical equipment due to hospital wide shortage. Under the clinical care category, on one occasion an important clinical finding was missed though pointed out by the paramedical service personnel at the time of admission. In the second case intravenous treatment was prescribed for a condition, which could also have been treated by oral prescription. In the medical records category, a set of notes was left unattended in the photocopier room. The other incident was due to incorrect filing of blood test results. An incident form was filled in regarding poor communication when a procedure was cancelled after the patient was anaesthetised because of abnormal blood test results done on the morning of admission but not available till the anaesthesia had started. The security related incident occurred when a window to a room containing expensive equipments was found unsecured by night patrol. Another incident occurred when there were inadequate levels of nursing staff on a particular shift. None of these incidents generated any complaints or claims. No patient came to any harm from any of these 111 incidents. It is of note that none of these forms were filled by the medical staff.There were no incident forms filled regarding the incidents that led to complaints. This is not unexpected as it is impossible to generate an exhaustive trigger list for each clinical area or specialty. It could be argued that this does not necessarily demonstrate suboptimal incident reporting. However, this data can be used for learning purposes to identify potential complaints awareness.All claims were made directly in relation to surgical procedures but there were no incident reports for any of these incidents. Ideally it should have been the operating surgeon who should have filled out the incident form. O'Donovan (1997) explains that unfortunately doctors and other healthcare professionals occasionally neglect to report some incidents and consequently a true picture of the, all too often, near misses is not drawn. The author argues that this situation could also be due to a confusion that exists among clinical practitioners between an incident and an accident.\nConclusion: Risk management is the global process that requires a systems-based approach to develop initiatives to improve safety and outcomes (Singh et al., 2007). Findings from this study demonstrate that high-risk incidents do not necessarily lead to complaints or claims. They also indicate that they only rarely cause any injury to a patient. It is also apparent that each and every incident cannot be identified from trigger lists, as there were no incident forms corresponding to the complaints received. However, identification of an adverse event is highly dependent on the quality of incident reporting which again is dependent on the personnel involved in the incident/accident.One may argue that all this incident reporting did not reduce any claims despite a significant amount of time spent in recording these incidents. Conversely though claims do not necessarily reflect overall patient safety, it is not to say that incident reporting is a waste of time either.It is evident that if properly incident reported, all the incidents leading to claims and the one resulting in settlement would have been identified. This upholds the issue of poor awareness on the part of medical staff about the need for greater involvement in incident reporting in hospitals. It may be worth considering incorporating in house sessions dedicated to adverse incident reporting for all grades of medical staff.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of incident reporting within the Department of Gynaecology at Trafford General Hospital.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A list of all reported clinical incidents in relation to gynaecology at the Trafford General Hospital over a period of two years (January 2005 to December 2006) was obtained. The complaints and claims related to gynaecology were also obtained for the same time period. All complaints and claims were correlated with the reported adverse incidents.\nFindings: - Of the reported 111 adverse incidents, none resulted in either complaint or claim. None of the complaints resulted in claims but there was no corresponding incident reporting. All the claims were directly related to surgical procedures but no incident reporting was done either. The nursing staff filled in all the 111 adverse incident forms.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This study is only limited to adverse incidents in gynaecology over a short period of time (two years) at a District General Hospital.\nPractical implications: - This study demonstrates the need to stress the importance of incident reporting to the doctors. It is suggested that a session be dedicated to incident reporting as a part of in-house training for medical staff of all grades.\nOriginality/value: - This paper highlights the need to impress on the medical staff about the importance of adverse clinical incident reporting.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Efficacy of a giant component in co-authorship networks: Evidence from a Southeast Asian dataset in economics	[ "Economics", "Research collaborations", "Research productivity", "Co-authorship network", "Giant component", "Southeast Asia" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A social network is a connection between entities having some kind of relationship. Any aspect of our life may be viewed from the perspective of networks. For example, we can describe a friendship network as one in which two persons are connected as friends, or an airline network where two airports are connected by their carrier flights. Likewise, we can construct a co-authorship network by connecting two authors who have co-authored a research paper. Since research collaboration occurs even when researchers do not subsequently co-author a research paper, co-authorship is only a partial indicator of research collaboration (Katz and Martin, 1997). However, as a tangible and verifiable indicator of research collaborations (Glanzel and Schubert, 2004), co-authorship of a research article is often considered to be a reliable proxy of research collaboration. Co-authorship is commonly used to gauge the association between researchers at individual, institutional and national levels.\nGC in co-authorship networks: In a network, most nodes initially exist either in isolation or in small clusters. There is a \"tipping point\" (percolation level), a special value of probability:\nResearch objective: Most of the previous studies of the GCs of co-authorship networks have focused on the size of or reasons for GC formation (percolation level, maturity of field, etc.). These studies have rarely looked at the efficacy or ability of GCs (irrespective of their size or density) in capturing productive authors. Rarely have they also investigated the link between collaborative ties, research productivity and the ability of the GC to trap productive authors. This study represents an attempt to fill this gap.\nResearch methods: Our first task was to identify a sparse network for study. We consider a network to be sparse when it has low density, a long average path length and a relatively small GC (i.e. occupying less than 25 per cent of the total nodes in the network). Our guess was that a geographically diverse data set gathered from a social sciences field would likely meet our requirements. After a few iterations, we chose as a case study the field of economics and the geographical region comprising the nations in Southeast Asia.\nResults and discussion: Research productivity\nConclusion: Although the network is sparse, the GC captured a large percentage of the most prolific authors. While a number of co-authorship network studies have examined the GC, this study is one of the first to investigate the efficacy of the GC in its ability to capture productive authors, even when it is not prominent (small size) and is sparse. The maturity of a field (Bettencourt et al., 2009) may be one of the reasons that brings growth in the number of nodes (and thereby in the number of connections) in a network. At some point, this leads to the formation of a largest component. However, there have been instances where a large number of nodes, even in a discipline that is fairly mature, has not resulted in the formation of a prominent GC. For example, Kumar and Jan (2013b) show that some engineering disciplines have maintained less prominent GCs even after decades of activity. There seems to be no single cause for the formation of a GC. Hence, it may be that just the presence of a large number of nodes is not sufficient. The pace of paper production together with other factors (i.e. a discovery in the field or an increasing multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary nature of the field) may be responsible for the faster formation of a GC. As fields or subject areas \"nucleate\" around shared concepts and techniques, collaboration may become more widespread, and thus enable smaller clumps of nodes to join one another and form a GC (Bettencourt et al., 2009). We have seen that degree correlates with research productivity. A GC likely grows due to the efforts of productive authors.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether a sparse and relatively small giant component (GC) will capture highly productive authors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author used a geographically dispersed data set involving authors in the field of economics in ten countries in Southeast Asia and applied social network analysis methods to investigate the structure and dynamics of GCs.\nFindings: Results reveal that a GC, characterized by both low density and small size, can still capture a significant percentage (68 per cent of the top 25) of the most productive authors. There seems to be a topological backing for this occurrence. The number of direct connections (or \"degree\") in the GC was correlated with research productivity, such that high-degree authors were almost twice as productive as low-degree authors. It is probable that productive authors having higher than average degrees may be the cause of the formation of the GC. The author hypothesize that irrespective of its size or sparseness, GCs in co-authorship networks may still represent the seat of main intellectual activity in the network.\nOriginality/value: This is one of the first studies to quantitatively analyse the ability of a co-authorship-based less-prominent GC to capture prominent authors.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Hedonic and eudaimonic well-being outcomes from co-creation roles: a study of vulnerable customers	[ "Healthcare", "Co-creation", "Mental health", "Well-being", "Vulnerable", "Eudaimonic" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Vulnerable customers, such as people with a mental illness, often lack medical knowledge and seldom take part in the management of their own healthcare (Anderson et al., 2013). This is problematic, as customers participation in their health-care provision has the ability to improve well-being (Anderson et al., 2013; Ostrom et al., 2015). While all customers experience a lack of control in service encounters, vulnerable customers face additional challenges such as social exclusion and asymmetrical information and are, therefore, more likely to decline to participate in service provision that can enhance their well-being. Previous researchers have identified that vulnerable customers experience discrimination during service exchanges (Crockett et al., 2011; Baker et al., 2005; Hill and Stamey, 1990) and thus identified that the vulnerability of this group of customers impacts their well-being. However, limited attention has been paid to understand what happens when vulnerable customers are directly involved in their service provision, and co-create with service providers to derive value outcomes for themselves and others. This research explores these co-creation experiences and seeks to understand how vulnerable customers, such as mental health patients, can derive well-being outcomes from various co-creation experiences related to their health-care.\nLiterature review: Customers' vulnerability due to poor mental health\nMethodology: Research approach\nDiscussion and implications: Theoretical implications\nLimitations and future research directions: Despite the theoretical and practical contributions, there are a number of limitations associated with this study along with opportunities for future research. First, the co-creative roles of customers and resultant well-being outcomes were identified in a health-care setting where customers have unique challenges and abilities to be involved in the co-creation of value. So, future research could test the applicability of these findings beyond healthcare. The findings from this research are potentially transferable, especially in high contact and high involvement service settings such as financial counselling services.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to provide an understanding of how the participation of vulnerable customers in the co-creation of health-care provision influences their individual well-being outcomes. Using self-determination theory, it demonstrates that co-creation at the point of care and at an organisational or system level impacts individual hedonic and eudaimonic well-being.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach is adopted to identify the various customer well-being outcomes. Two case studies of health-care organisations, comprising ten in-depth interviews and eight focus groups, as well as documents and noted observations are used for thematic analysis.\nFindings: The study demonstrates ways in which vulnerable customers integrate resources to co-create value outcomes. It shows how differing co-creative role of customers with mental illness lead to different customer well-being outcomes. These roles manifest not only the hedonic well-being characteristics of pleasure and happiness but also eudaimonic well-being, which provides a sense of achievement and purpose to customers. The study used self-determination theory to identify different forms of eudaimonic well-being derived from the co-creation roles of co-producer, strategic partner and community citizen.\nOriginality/value: The co-creation and transformative service literature is extended by demonstrating that a feeling of self-efficacy and self-determination because of value co-creation foster customer well-being. This study demonstrates that co-creation at the point of care and at an organisational or system level impacts individual hedonic and eudaimonic well-being.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The formation of germ cell for organizational learning	[ "Learning", "Organizing", "Expansive learning", "Germ cell", "Knowing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper engages with the challenges related to reconfigurations of workplaces and organizational contexts (Engestrom, 2004), thus dealing with increasingly complex and unpredictable environments. In this organizational landscape, people have to cope with unedited and uncertain problems since. The new scenario is characterized by meaningless situations, huge uncertainty, insecurity, lack of information and turbulent backgrounds.\nToward new ways of knowing, thinking and learning: The ability to face the complex and unpredictable landscape that actually characterizes the organizational world by creating new forms of knowledge and innovative ways of thinking and learning is seen as a distinctive and competitive advantage for companies and organizations (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998; Bontis et al., 2002; Mintzberg, 2009; Weick and Suttcliffe, 2007; Engestrom, 2004, 2008).\nRelevance of the \"germ cell\" in expansive learning: Assuming the thoughtful and transformative perspective of the expansive learning theory, we highlight the construction of the early abstract \"germ cell\" as a central framework for the radical exploration of new knowledge and emerging activities in specific organizational contexts (Engestrom, 2004).\nOrganizational scenarios: In this section, we describe two organizational scenarios related to different sectors that present problematic situations and opportunities for changing.\nForming the \"germ cell\": Inside this framework, we see the \"germ cell\" as a turning point through which subjects can give sense to the unknown situation and transform it into one that has a different meaning. In this perspective, the \"germ cell\" represents a new possible grasp of the meaningless situations. The construction of the cell inside the two organizational contexts represents a process that starts from the exploration of the specific situations and the questioning of the consolidated practices.\nClues and cues from the field: As previously mentioned, the construction of the \"germ cell\" has to be grounded in the real contexts and on the discourses and actions of the subjects involved. This means that the abstract concept arises from cues and clues (material and immaterial), which open a possibility for a change that breaks out and transforms the actual critical situation. Such an emergence is not reducible to a cognitive or linear problem-solving procedure; rather, it is an unfolding process mediated and shaped by acts, conversations, discourses, decisions, tools, gears and instruments. The abstraction is positioned in socio-material contexts and doubts, conflicts, resistances, involutions and evolutions. We detected stories and discussions about consolidated practices, concepts, ongoing use of tools and artifacts and emerging criticalities; this knowledge represents the empirical basis upon which we generated the theoretical abstraction in collaboration with the subjects involved.\nConflict of motives and associated meanings: In the case of the blood donors' association, we conducted 40 interviews with different members inside the organization and located at different places of the Italian territory. The aim was that of collecting a large number of stories and concrete experiences that would have allowed the identification of values and ethical dimensions. In the case of the health district, we discussed with the members of the working group about the consolidated practices and criticalities related to the networking inside their organization. Through the immersion in the contexts and the activation of dialogues with the subjects, we have been able to identify different meanings related to the germ cell and its potential application. The dialogues showed risks, limits, potentials, advantages and disadvantages of the two polarities that seem to be relevant for the subjects.\nConclusion: Why does the \"germ cell\" have a pivotal role in an organization's transformation? Which conditions facilitate the formation of the germ cell in the management of complex and uncertain problems?\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The aim of the paper is to analyze the process of \"germ cell\" formation by framing it as an opportunity for promoting organizational learning and transformation. The paper aims to specifically answer two research questions: Why does the \"germ cell\" have a pivotal role in organization's transformation? and Which conditions facilitate the formation of the \"germ cell\" in the management of complex and uncertain problems?\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper answers the research questions first by presenting the literature related to knowing and learning inside organizations, and second by introducing the concept of \"germ cell\" and connecting it with the metaphors of \"waiting experiment\" and \"anchoring forward\". Finally, the paper analyzes the steps by which the \"germ cell\" is shaped, thus owing to the exploration of problematic situations, underpinning the \"germ cell's \" role to open perspectives for multiple applications and development. Two research interventions are presented by focusing on the construction of the \"germ cell\" moving from the problematic situations to promote organizational learning and change.\nFindings: The paper describes the formation of the \"germ cell\" as a process that opens possibilities for subjects to recognize and reflect on the recurrent and taken-for-granted practices and concepts and give sense to them by making the inner contradiction and the ways for managing it visible.\nOriginality/value: The unfolding and challenging inceptive configuration of the germ cell sheds light on the discursive/conversational/language processes and the activities entangled in socio-material instrumentalities and environments in which people are involved.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Cronyism: One possible consequence of guanxi for an insider: how to obtain and maintain it?	[ "China", "Confucianism", "Interpersonal relations", "National cultures", "Business ethics" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Guanxi is defined as personal relationship networks of informal social bond that individuals carry expectations and obligations to facilitate exchange of favours (Lovett et al., 1999; Ambler et al., 1999). The ultimate goal of foreign businessmen is to utilize guanxi to become insiders or \"old friends\" (Leung et al. 1995, p. 22) of their Chinese counterparts to obtain cronyism (Wong and Chan, 1999; Xin and Pearce, 1996). These contextual relationships have been acknowledged but how foreign businessmen progress from \"new friends\" to \"old friends\" through guanxi to obtain cronyism from their Chinese counterparts remains unknown. By using an insider perspective, this paper hypothesizes a holistic model to explain how foreign businessmen use guanxi to convert themselves from \"new friends\" to \"old friends\" to achieve cronyism.\nObjectives: The main objective of this paper is to model a process for foreign businessmen to transform themselves from \"new friends\" to \"old friends\" of their Chinese counterparts through a guanxi adaptation mechanism to order to obtain cronyism. It specifically illustrates the personality traits needed for foreign businessmen to qualify themselves as \"new friends\" to their Chinese counterparts; determines the constructs or variables embedded in the guanxi adaptation mechanism; depicts cronyism at the \"old friend\" stage; postulates propositions among variables in this model and gives recommendations to foreign businessmen to maintain the old friend status. It proposes future research directions.\nLiterature review: From a phraseology perspective, Lee and Dawes (2005, p. 29) explained: \"The character 'guan' means a gate or a hurdle, and 'xi' refers to a tie, a relationship, or a connection. So guanxi literally means pass the gate and get connected\". In a business context, it refers to personal relationship networks of informal social bond that individuals carry expectations and obligations to facilitate exchange of favours among them (De Keijzer, 1992; Lovett et al., 1999; Ambler et al., 1999).A Chinese businessman builds his guanxi network (Lee et al., 2001) according to two dimensions, i.e. a guanxi frame and the guanxi links (Brunner et al., 1989). A guanxi frame is either a physical work unit such as an organisation or an invisible social circle. Guanxi links are some existing contacts such as friends, former schoolmates, former or existing colleagues and former teachers who have connections with potential Chinese counterparts. A guanxi network can be expanded or accumulated through these links (Tsang, 1998). The more links one has, the more capable one can establish guanxi within the social units one belongs to, provided that he/she is willing to spend time, money, and efforts navigating through these complex networks. La guanxi (or guanxi building) is an artistic social engineering process which helps form an individual's guanxi network.Chinese businessmen are committed to each other on a long-term basis by a hidden norm of reciprocity which concerns equity and exchange of favours (Luo and Chen, 1997). They also anticipate certain expectations or reactions from others when they practise guanxi-related activities (Yang, 1981; Bond and Hwang, 1994). This norm of reciprocity should be observed by foreign businessmen. Also, purely relying on guanxi to establish an institutional business relationship may be risky. Evidence shows that whilst established guanxi can provide foreign firms with competitive advantage in negotiating within the complex Chinese network, it cannot eliminate threats and competition. Guanxi may even become worthless or turn into a liability once the partner loses power.Chinese classify human beings into three categories with a pre-deposition of closeness in mind:1. family people (jiaren);2. insiders or familiar people (shou ren), e.g. former classmates, former colleagues, and hometown fellows; and3. outsiders or strangers (sheng ren) (Yang, 1993).The typology suggests that family ties are the closest in that exchange of information, obligation and sentiment are often considered unconditional and moral (Tsui and Farth, 1997), insider or familiar ties are semi-close, with moderate degrees of information, obligation and sentiment cultivated through social and pragmatic favour exchange; ties among outsiders or strangers are either nonexistent or distant, with little exchange in information, obligation or sentiment (Chen et al., 2004). A foreign businessman cannot gain access to the first type of guanxi relationship because he does not have pedigree with any powerful Chinese family. Also, he cannot build guanxi with his Chinese counterpart if he is considered as a stranger. Therefore, he can only build guanxi with his Chinese counterpart through the remaining category, i.e. the insider.Leung et al. (1995, p. 22) conceptualized Chinese relationship according to the way that Chinese businessmen interact with their business counterparts. They realized that Chinese businessmen categorize their foreign business counterparts into \"business associates. \"business partners. \"new friend\" and \"old friend\" based on two contact levels, i.e. business level and personal level. At business contact level, foreign businessmen and their Chinese counterparts will become \"business associates\" and subsequently \"business partners\" and their transactions are discrete and arms length in nature that are purely profit driven without any involvement in personal relationship (Lee and Lo, 1988). As such, the Chinese businessmen still consider their \"business partners\" as outsiders. In contrast, foreign businessmen will be more effective to take an insider perspective and establish personal relationships with their Chinese counterparts through friendship building. In a \"new friend\" category, exchange in information, obligation and sentiments between the Chinese and their foreign business counterparts are limited. The Chinese will test the strength of their relational bonding through various formal (company visits) or informal meetings (eating and drinking). These meetings engender whole-hearted exchange in information, obligation and sentiment between the two parties. Eventually, ganging (emotional element of guanxi) between them emerges. Relational exchange happens when the Chinese and his foreign counterpart becomes \"old friend\". Exchange of favour and business deals becomes easier because differences such as business styles and practices are resolved. Utmost is the fact that Chinese practice cronyism to their \"old friends\"!The above literature review suggests that guanxi-insider perspective should be conceptualized as a strategic process to convert a \"new friend\" to an \"old friend\" through an adaptation process, as shown in Figure 1.\nCronyism: Cronyism is defined as a reciprocal exchange transaction where party A shows favour to party B based on shared membership and loyalty at the expense of party C's equal or superior claim to the valued resource (Soanes, 2001; Khatri and Tsang, 2003; Khatri et al., 2006). Cronyism in China can be traced back to its feudal system in which people had to develop guanxi with a small number of government officials in order to obtain favourable treatment or allocation of scare resources. The feudal system collapsed after the Ching dynasty disappeared in 1911, but substantial guanxi practices remain because massive resources, instead of controlling by government officials, are being regulated by the central government. In fact, the intricate relationships between government officials and business people are just the end result of a centralized regulatory economy (Reyes, 2000). Businessmen have to maintain close ties with government officials to determine the impact of public policies on their businesses. The discussion so far leads to a sensible question: is cronyism equal to guanxi? Khatri et al. (2006) explained that cronyism is the act of favouritism and guanxi is the channel to obtain that favouritism. To constitute cronyism, a favour must satisfy four criteria:1. there must be no immediate return of the favour or explicit agreement to return it;2. something of value must be given;3. the parties must share membership in a social network; and4. it must come at a third party's expense (Khatri et al., 2006).These criteria suggest that Chinese cronyism is a long-term result of guanxi building and it occurs at the expense of a third party.Cronyism can purely be instrumental which is motivated by task, utilitarian, and self-interest-based factors (Khatri et al., 2006). Favouritism derived from cronyism includes preferential treatments on providing source of resources such as information, land resources, ease of application approvals (Leung et al., 1996). Evidence shows that cronyism exists between old friends. For instance, the Chinese insurance industry has been highly regulated and establishment of a foreign wholly owned subsidiary is almost impossible. Criticisms surged when AIA Insurance Group established second wholly owned subsidiary at Beijing in 2002. The Chief Commissioner of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation (MOFTEC) responded: \"The incidence shows that we respect history. We know who our old friends are!\" (Hong Kong Economic Times, 2002).Cronyism can also be motivated by relationship, affection, and loyalty-based factors (Khatri et al., 2006). For instance, during the civil war between South and North Vietnam in the 1950s, an embargo was imposed on China because the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was a military supporter of North Vietnam. Nobody dared to deliver resource materials to China except Mr Fook Ying Tong. Based on Mr Fook's loyalty to the CCP, the Chinese government has been giving him preferential treatment after the war. For instance, the Hong Kong distributorships of many famous Chinese products have been granted to Mr Fook (Leung, 2000).\nGuanxi adaptation: Doing business in China is not only transactional but also cultural (Wagner, 1990). In this sense, the emotional and instrumental elements of guanxi, i.e. renqing and ganging must be observed when foreign businessmen establish guanxi with their Chinese counterparts (Lee and Dawes, 2005).Ganging\nNew friend status: Hwang (1987) recognized that Chinese people admire to interact with individuals who have personal integrity and the abilities to promote harmony and these personality traits must be shown through a proper guanxi positioning strategy (Leung and Wong, 2001).Personal integrity\nConclusion and recommendation: In this paper, we suggest that a foreign businessman needs to take an insider perspective to convert himself from a new friend to an old friend of his Chinese counterpart in order to motivate the practice of cronyism by his Chinese counterpart. He must equip himself with the characteristics of right guanxi positioning, the ability of generating harmony and the quality of integrity to effectively cultivate guanxi with Chinese counterpart through renqing and ganging. Gift-giving is strategic and he must manage its monetary value carefully to alleviate the \"face\" of his Chinese counterpart because appropriate gift-giving management can eventually improve the ganging between them.One very important issue imbedded in the discussion above is that personal integrity carries a positive connotation whilst cronyism implies a negative behaviour. When a foreign businessman is said to have personal integrity, he is supposed to have the quality of moral self-governance to monitor business ethics at both individual and organizational level. However, his practice of gift-giving to generate ganging to obtain cronyism at a third party's expense violates his personal integrity to certain extent in his host country. So, can personal integrity and cronyism co-exist? In fact, the answer to this question actually calls for his of absolutism vs relativism. An absolutist believes in a global standard of ethical behaviour whilst a relativist admits that individual culture must be respected. Evidence shows that relativism prevails in international market. Most experienced businessmen would agree that doing business in countries such as Japan would be virtually impossible without adopting the practice of gift-giving. Also, companies such as Texas Instruments and IBM that are outspoken against bribery would accept it as a way of conducting businesses (Donaldson, 1996). The real issue is how \"relative\"? As such, a company should establish a zone of ethical tolerance in terms of cultural norms which are acceptable by host country standard so its business executives know how to operate in the context of gift giving. Whenever the potential practice is outside this zone, business executives should first replace it by other acceptable practices. For instance, helping the Chinese counterpart's child to apply to an overseas university is a viable alternative. In parallel, a company may leverage its pressure in gift-giving by building its corporate image through community donations. These donations will raise a company's reputation and political capitals in China. Surely, a Chinese organization will like to anchor itself with a powerful foreign organization instead of just partnering with an organization with numerous gift-giving!The discussion of cronyism above suggests that loyalty exists between old friends. A foreign businessman should not openly criticize their old friends as they do it frequently in the West. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of J. Walter Thomson China, Mr Tom Doctoroff, echoed: \"Don't make Beijing angry!\" (Hong Kong Economic Times, 2006). In fact, showing support in different social occasions is equated to showing a foreign businessman's loyalty to his Chinese counterpart. AIA case in China is exemplary because it has been showing loyalty to the Chinese government to qualify for its old friend status.Evidence shows that ganging needs to be maintained through frequent visits to the Chinese parties because the foreign parties can show their commitment to personal relationships to their Chinese counterparts. However, purely visits without knowing the Chinese counterparts' personal backgrounds are just a waste of time because exchange of emotional attachment cannot be facilitated. Hence, foreign businessmen should do their homework by collecting information before they visit their Chinese counterparts.\nDirections of future research: A challenging extension of our research is to examine antecedents of cronyism in a Sino-foreign business context so that our propositions can be validated. Examining the model empirically at private or government level can also test its generalizability in different business context in China. More antecedent variables such as xinyong (personal trust), face can be added to test their roles and increase the predictability of the model.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to determine a model of how a foreign businessman obtains and maintains cronyism from his Chinese counterpart that emphasizes on an insider perspective to convert him from a new friend to an old friend of his Chinese counterpart through a guanxi adaptation mechanism.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A vigorous analysis of extant literature and an investigation of insider dynamics within a new friend/old friend perspective.\nFindings: - Gift-giving is strategic and a foreign businessman must manage its monetary value very cautiously in order to alleviate the \"face\" and provide renqing so as to generate ganging and to obtain cronyism from his Chinese counterpart. In saying that, relativism prevails. A foreign company must establish a zone of ethical tolerance so that its executive knows the limits when practicing gift-giving. In China, an old friend is a supporter and therefore a foreign business should not openly criticize his Chinese counterpart. Frequent visits to China must be maintained.\nPractical implications: - A foreign businessman needs to understand the guanxi dynamics of renqing and ganging and their sequential arrangement in the adaptation mechanism. He should use gift-giving to offer renqing so as to establish ganging with his Chinese counterparts.\nOriginality/value: - Provides a depth analysis of two emotional aspects in the guanxi adaptation mechanism, i.e. renqing and ganging which is a definitive device to convert a foreign businessman from a new friend to an old friend of his counterpart in the Chinese market.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Shanghai aged care and Confucian welfare	[ "China", "Aged care", "Social welfare", "Ageing", "Community services", "Confucian values" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Some social policy theorists assert that East Asia represents a distinct social welfare regime type, influenced by Confucian values, with greater reliance on the role of the family instead of the state than in high-income countries. This theorisation, however, is generally derived from examining countries' social security systems and is increasingly questioned as too static and reductive in the changing and diverse East Asian context. This paper asks whether a Confucian welfare system is relevant to characterising the way social services are changing in Shanghai. It takes the example of services for older people, including home care, community care and residential care.\nConfucian welfare system: Welfare regime theories explain approaches to social welfare provision through differences in economic, institutional and sometimes political and cultural history, to define ideal types and variation between and within the types (Aspalter, 2006a; Esping-Andersen, 1999). They distinguish the breadth of coverage of the system and the relative significance of the role of the individual, family, market and state in the functioning of the welfare system. Theory on East Asian social welfare regimes typifies them as having a weak role of individuals and the state and a strong role of families and the market (Aspalter, 2006b). Authors to argue that there exists a sufficiently distinct form of welfare provision in East Asia to warrant an alternative definition (Kuypers, 2014). This paper investigates whether empirical social service research in Shanghai, a high-income part of China, remains consistent with this alternative description.\nMethods: The research used mixed methods to analyse and generate empirical data about the Shanghai aged care system. Mixed methods were necessary so that quantitative data about the extent of the system could be supplemented with qualitative data about how people use it. Data included ageing profile statistics, policy documents about Shanghai aged care community services and ethnographic, qualitative fieldwork data about older people's preferences for support. The research is part of a larger research programme on social support for older people with disabilities in China (Fisher et al., 2011, 2014).\nProfile of older people in Shanghai: Expectations from Confucian values are that older people receive financial and other support from family members and live in extended family households. Change in the profile of older people in Shanghai in the dimensions presented below is evidence of change in people's capacity or preference to fulfil these expectations. Over 4.13m people aged over 60 years live in Shanghai, which is 28.8 per cent of the city population (Table I). The proportion of women is higher than men and increases with age.\nAged care community services: Nationally, policy is set by the State Council. Community services policy is the responsibility of the Civil Affairs Bureau. Policy, funding and accountability are the responsibilities of the top levels of government (Shanghai City, district and community levels of government) (Table VII). The implementation and provision of services are at the community and residential area levels of government. The district government also provides some model service types.\nPreferences of older people: The SCAB aged care support policy is that 90 per cent of older people should be supported by family, 7 per cent by community services and 3 per cent supported in residential facilities. In practice, fewer people live in residential facilities and some older people supported by family also receive community service support. It is likely that the proportion of older people using a mix of support will increase. To some extent, the formal community support system already reflects the preferences of older people and their families, as described in the interview data below.\nDiscussion: The findings about the current aged care community services policy and the preferences of older people illustrate the new social services system in Shanghai. The mixed method data show that most older people in Shanghai still rely on their family (particularly their daughters, contrary to Confucian norms), but they are becoming less reliant on family support and more reliant on the state. Shanghai's ageing population faces high costs of living and a growing preference for independence. This section discusses the reasons attributed to how Shanghai aged care services have responded to these demographic changes and likely future directions. The analysis draws implications about the relationship between Confucian values and the aged care system in Shanghai.\nConclusion: Early welfare regime theory about East Asian countries that attributed the familial differences in social welfare arrangements to Confucian values did not take account of dynamic aspect of welfare regimes in economic, cultural, political and social contexts, particularly in transition countries. The empirical evidence about Shanghai's aged care community services reveals responsive policy developments that take account of these changes. The new directions in the aged care social services system are not incompatible with Confucian values but this study reinforces theories that argue that Confucian values are insufficient for categorising the aged care system in Shanghai. In addition, like previous research about financial and institutional support, the research did not expose evidence that refuted that Confucian values remain useful at political and family levels, although families' application of the values is modified by the changing economic and social roles of women (Yu et al., 2015).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Some social policy theorists assert that East Asia has a distinct social welfare regime that due to the influence of Confucian values relies on families more than in other countries. This theorisation has been questioned, partly because it is a static, reductive generalisation. The purpose of this paper is to ask whether this characterisation is relevant to aged care services in Shanghai.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses data from ageing profile statistics, policy documents and ethnographic fieldwork to examine Shanghai aged care services.\nFindings: These data show a growing reliance and preference for state aged care service provision to complement family care. It finds that changes in Shanghai aged care services in the last ten years have moved towards a model with similar patterns in high-income countries. It suggests that differences in the service system that were attributed to Confucian values were more likely due to the degree of economic development and internationalisation.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to the literature by re-examining the structure of Shanghai's welfare regime in the context of the dynamic nature of aged care services and preferences of older people.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Time-inconsistency problem: less common than we think	[ "Monetary policy", "Unemployment", "Inflation", "Time-inconsistency problem" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: As highlighted by Taylor (2012), one of the most important issues for analysis in modern macroeconomics is the time-inconsistency problem (TIP) in monetary policy. Since the contributions of Kydland and Prescott (1977) and Barro and Gordon (1983) - KPBG - this subject has become the cornerstone of several researches. The main idea is that an unexpected change in monetary policy can imply gains in utility for the central banker (lower unemployment rate). As a manner of avoiding this problem, the best strategy for the monetary authority is the use of rules and the development of central bank's credibility.\n2. A brief review of cointegration-based studies of the TIP: The seminal papers by Kydland and Prescott (1977) and Barro and Gordon (1983) gave rise to a large theoretical literature that examines both normative and positive implications of the temporal inconsistency of monetary policy. Although the basic Kydland and Prescott (1977) and Barro and Gordon (1983) frameworks represent well known and influential models in macroeconomics, there has been relatively little empirical testing of that framework, i.e. the empirical analysis of this type of models has been more limited. Furthermore, policy insiders have questioned the relevance of these models, arguing that the time inconsistency story is a poor representation of policymakers' behavior.\n3. Theoretical underpinnings: The main theoretical reference on empirical analysis about TIP is Ireland (1999). The inspiration for that study is the well-known inflation bias hypothesis in KPBG theoretical framework. In order to perform an applied analysis for the USA, Ireland (1999) modified KPBG analysis by assuming that the natural rate of unemployment is an autoregressive process which holds a unit root and by introducing control errors for inflation.\n4. Data and methodology: The standard empirical analysis regarding TIP relies on the behavior of the inflation (consumer price index - percent change over corresponding period of previous year) and unemployment (percentage rate - unseasoned) time series[4]. Based on series gathered from IFS database with quarterly frequency, Figure 1 allows one to see that there exists a negative correlation between inflation rate and unemployment rate (average of -0.10).\n5. Empirical evidence: The upper part of Table I shows the results for the period before the subprime crisis. The lower part of the table considers the subprime crisis period. It is important to highlight that most of IT countries in the sample adopted this monetary regime before the beginning of the sample period[5]. Only two countries in the sample adopted IT during the period (Brazil and South Korea). Due to the fact that the number of observations before IT is insufficient for a reasonable analysis, the focus is the period after adoption of IT in these countries.\n6. Conclusion: The results indicate that a new era without TIP is observed from the 1990s. In other words, the view that central banks conduct monetary policy to deceive the public in order to achieve better results is not observed. In fact, the results show that the large majority of countries in the sample have policies that are consistent with long-term goals. An interesting result is that the few cases where TIP is possible in the Ireland sense were detected in advanced countries with IT. This observation allows one to conjecture that the traditional argument that developing countries have weak institutions and thus present a fertile ground for TIP or that the adoption of IT can avoid TIP is not necessarily true. In short, the findings denote that the design of modern monetary policy needs to consider that TIP is not common in the real world nowadays.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to make an empirical analysis concerning time-inconsistency problem (TIP) based on a sample of 12 countries for the period from 1993 to 2011.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The existence of TIP only makes sense if there is a trade-off between inflation and unemployment and when there is a causal relationship indicating that with more inflation, unemployment is reduced (as suggested by the Phillips curve). Hence, TIP is observed by testing the existence of cointegration between inflation rate and unemployment rate series and analyzing the sign of the estimated coefficient of the cointegration vector.\nFindings: The findings indicate that the large majority of countries in the sample have policies that are consistent with long-term goals. Furthermore, it is possible to conjecture that the traditional argument that developing countries have weak institutions and thus present a fertile ground for TIP or that the adoption of inflation targeting (IT) can avoid TIP is not necessarily true.\nOriginality/value: This study sheds light on four important issues. First, has the change in the mindset of the monetary policy management from the 1990s eliminated TIP? Second, is TIP a sickness only for developing countries? Third, is IT associated with TIP? Fourth, has the TIP increased around the world due to the subprime crisis? In short, this paper is an advance on the empirical literature on TIP and it is a very important overview for observing the present day conduct of the monetary policy through the international experience.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Loyalty program planning and analytics	[ "Loyalty schemes", "Process planning" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\nBuyer loyalty initiatives: The proliferation of consumer databases is rapidly redefining marketing practices across industries. The influx of consumer, market and competitive insights is transforming marketing art into science, increasing its productivity through better targeting. As a result, the \"one size fits all\" mass marketing is slowly giving way to data-driven, segmented and differentiated promotions.Exemplifying the new face of marketing are brand loyalty programs, a broad category of reward-based initiatives aimed at stemming customer attrition. Already common in the frequent usage product categories such as retail, travel or hospitality, buyer loyalty programs are slowly spreading into other consumer product and service categories, including auto and entertainment. Taking advantage of rapidly advancing informational technologies, these marketing initiatives are emerging as the most effective means of finding and retaining brands' most profitable buyers.In spite of their promise and growing popularity, many buyer loyalty programs become financial liabilities instead of self-funding business assets. Often struggling to convert initial consumer interest in the program itself into incremental product purchases, they deliver poor return on their investment. The loyalty initiatives' economic underperformance typically stems from a lack of broader strategic program rationalization, manifesting itself in technology and incentive overspending. In other words, infrastructure and incentive spending decisions are often made without the support of thorough cost-benefit analyses.Sources of underperformance\nBuilding a profitable loyalty program: It is often said that success is 95 percent perspiration and 5 percent inspiration. In some sense that is true of buyer loyalty initiatives, where a kernel of a unique idea and a great deal of disciplined planning and analysis are needed for a successful program to emerge. To make the most of the \"perspiration\" aspect of building a robust initiative, these efforts should be focused on a few critical aspects.First and foremost, clearly state your program's end objective - is it a net increase in the brand's revenue or profitability? If it is the former, focus on product-level price elasticity considerations, which means a broad-based program built around volume discounts and cash rebates. On the other hand, if the growth in net profitability is your objective, focus on buyer-level repurchase propensity, which translates into careful customer target selection and tailored offerings deemphasizing price discounting. Keep in mind that a loyalty program can boost your brand's revenue if it is built around price incentives, or it can be a profit generating tool if it is focused on identifying and attracting highest value customers. Avoid the temptation to pursue both of these goals simultaneously or you run the risk of missing both targets.Second, select appropriate impact measurement metrics. The frequently used customer registration rate is a poor indicator of program performance because it relates the impact of the program to an activity that - by itself - delivers little-to-no economic value to the brand. Do not forget that the role of a loyalty initiative is to drive repurchase - program registration is merely a mean to that end. To avoid overstating the impact of your treatment strategy, express its performance in terms of program-attributable sales gains, or comparable revenue producing activities (e.g. re-enrollment, renewal, etc).Finally, make your program's target audience strategy explicit and operationally clear. Most programs are built around open consumer self-selection, meaning that anyone can elect to participate. The alternative is to invite only a select group of customers. Due to the adverse customer selection, the \"open\" approach usually attracts scores of registrants but generates not nearly as many incremental purchases. On the other hand, the invitation-based approach focusing only on pre-qualified customers may generate fewer registrants but typically yields higher purchase incrementality. Buyer self-selection based recruitment is attractive because it is easy to execute, but the added complexity of differentiated treatment typically more than pays for itself in greater sales gains. It is important to note, however, that the effectiveness of the invitation-based audience strategy depends on the availability of robust customer pre-qualification[4] insights.Figure 1 presents a high level view of a program planning process of building economically sound customer loyalty initiatives.\nLoyalty analytics: The best plans are those built around objective facts and fact-supported projections. Yet few loyalty initiatives have the right information available at the right time. The first step toward changing that is to identify and prioritize the most critical analytical tasks. To that end, most programs' economic success is dependent on answering the following three (albeit loaded) questions:1. Who are the best customers and what is their value to the franchise? Analytic competency needed: customer-level value assessment and classification.2. How much should be spent to retain those customers and what are the best incentives? Analytic competency needed: treatment-level incentive type and dollar amounts.3. How are specific campaigns and incentives performing against their stated goals? Analytic competency needed: program impact measurement.The first of the three sets of insights forms the basis for scaling and rationalizing the level of program investment. Building on its findings, incentive and offer identification (number 2 above) pinpoints the most effective contact and offer strategy to drive loyalty programs' economic success. Finally, program impact measurement (number 3) supports reliable and objective assessment of sales or revenue incrementality. Jointly, these capabilities form a loyalty program support continuum that helps to steer it toward long-term profitability. As shown in Figure 2, they are sequentially dependent, which means that findings from number 1 are used as inputs into number 2 and outcomes of number 1 and number 2 are incorporated into number 3.Methodologically, these are self-contained analytical competencies requiring unique statistical approaches. For that reason each will be discussed separately, starting with Customer Assessment and valuation, followed by Incentive type and level identification and Robust program impact measurement.Customer assessment and valuation\nSome parting thoughts: A strong value proposition is not always sufficient to turn a loyalty initiative into a profitable business asset. For reasons ranging from runaway program costs to poor sales gains, unique and well-received loyalty offerings can fall short of their business goals. In this article, I argue that good loyalty ideas often struggle economically because of poor program planning and inadequate informational supports.Planning is often focused almost exclusively on operational, program launch related decisions, which while important in their own right do not expressly address the fundamental relationship between the anticipated program costs and benefits. Furthermore, a number of tactical decisions are made outside of an appropriate strategic context. For instance, participant recruitment decisions are rarely made in a broader context of the revenue vs. profit contribution.Program planning is also frequently hampered by informational deficiencies. Often \"data rich, but information poor\", loyalty initiatives are notorious for under-leveraging the data otherwise readily available to them. In addition, some of the underlying analytical processes are overly simplistic, sometimes to the point of being misleading, as exemplified by the buyer loyalty categorization heuristic. Overlooking the critically important purchase data householding and the resultant pooling of individual product needs, this customer classification approach is switcher-biased. Taking into account data householding and explicitly factoring-in household-level assessment of category purchase requirements enables a more robust three-way loyalty classification system, replacing the less reliable loyal-switcher dichotomy.Overall, the ideas presented in this article focus on economics of loyalty initiatives. They are intended to help to grow great loyalty ideas into profitable business assets. They are also intended to contribute to tactical decision making by placing those decisions in a larger, end outcome oriented, set of business considerations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The paper aims to review and critique the current state of loyalty program planning and analytics, highlighting a number of process and methodological deficiencies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A general loyalty program planning approach is outlined, designed to build a foundation for a profitable loyalty initiative.\nFindings: - The paper demonstrates the importance of robust customer insights to program planning and its ongoing management; it also challenges the accuracy of the conventional buyer loyalty measurement approach. In particular, the paper highlights the flaws of the dichotomous loyalty classification which makes often unreasonable category purchase requirements assumptions.\nOriginality/value: - The alternative to the loyal customers vs brand switchers buyer categorization is offered, which allows customers to be single-brand loyal, multi-brand loyal or brand switchers. An explicit brand buyer loyalty categorization is presented, built around explicit differentiation between repurchase exclusivity and brand loyalty.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Public hospital reforms in China: towards a model of new public management?	[ "New public management", "Chinese healthcare system", "Hospital management and governance", "Public hospitals reform" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Over the last three decades, China has made impressive strides in the development of its healthcare system. According to one influential report, the country's annual expenditure on health is projected to grow at an average rate of 11.8 percent per year in 2014-2018, reaching $892bn by 2018 (Nofri, 2015; Deloitte, 2016). While this represents a lower proportion of GDP (5.6 percent) than in most developed nations, per capita expenditure has risen steadily (Mossialos et al., 2015). However, despite these trends, the Chinese healthcare system is facing many challenges, with government shifting its focus from increasing volume to improving access, efficiency and service quality (Deloitte, 2016). Integral to this are reforms of the public hospital sector. In 2015, China had 27,587 hospitals, with majority of staff (83 percent) and beds (81 percent) concentrated in publicly owned hospitals (National Health and Family Planning Commission, 2016). Nevertheless, while absorbing the bulk of resources, this sector is reaching a crisis point, characterized by poor access, variable quality of services and an increasingly overworked and demoralized workforce. Inefficiency has also risen, with extra resources \"captured by providers as higher income and profits\" (Yip and Hsiao, 2008, p. 460).\nNew public management reform and hospital management: As noted, a shared point of reference for many recent accounts of change in healthcare services globally is the NPM. Broadly speaking, this refers to a cluster of doctrines and practices that are held to constitute a paradigm of management distinct from \"traditional modes of public administration\" (Verbeeten and Spekle, 2015). According to Hood (1995), an NPM agenda means empowering managers, stressing their \"right to manage\" with fewer constraints such as those imposed by rules and bureaucracy. In healthcare, this has manifested itself in terms of a demand to increase \"control over input mix and level, outputs and scope of activities\" (McKee and Healy, 2002, p. 20). However, it is also clear that NPM is an ambiguous and multifaceted concept, highlighting potentially contradictory policy goals, such as those of enhancing management in public organizations and privatization (Laegreid, 2017).\nThe Chinese healthcare system: background: Before considering how far global NPM models (the three dimensions outlined above) have translated to China, it is useful to first understand the context. Modern China's health system has gone through various stages of development (Blumenthal and Hsiao, 2015). An initial phase followed the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. This led to the creation of a state planned and provided health system, which successfully extended care to rural areas through the development of community based health services (so called \"barefoot doctors\") (Yip and Hsiao, 2008). A second key phase began after 1984 with the transition from a planned to a market economy. In this period of what Millar et al. (2016) term \"unbridled marketization,\" government financial support for hospitals and community services fell dramatically, while social insurance schemes (such as CMS) were slowly starved of funding (Ramesh et al., 2013). The vast majority of the population were left without insurance. By 1999, while 49 percent of the urban population had access to some form of health insurance (mostly from government and state enterprises), only 7 percent of the 900m rural Chinese had coverage (Blumenthal and Hsiao, 2015).\nThe Chinese public hospital sector: In this section, we turn to the specific characteristics of the public hospital system in China. Since 1989, hospitals in China have been classified into three levels according to their size and core functions (Meng et al., 2015). First, primary hospitals tend to be smaller, offering preventive services and rehabilitation services closer to a local community. Secondary hospitals or regional hospitals offer comprehensive medical and health services to multiple communities and have between 100 and 499 beds. By contrast, tertiary hospitals have a minimum of 500 beds, serve larger geographical areas, offering high-level and specialized medical services.\nPublic management reforms in China: In this section, we now turn to the more recent reforms that have taken place in China's public hospital system and the extent to which these have converged toward (or departed from) the global model of NPM described earlier. Specifically, we focus on reforms in three areas: changes in the method of funding and performance management; the \"modernization\" of hospital governance and attempts to strengthen internal management capabilities.\nDiscussion: The main point of departure for this paper was the need to better understand current reforms taking place in China's expanding healthcare sector and locate these within broader debates about the NPM. To understand this, we set out three dimensions of a global NPO model in healthcare relating to reforms of the funding regime, organizational architecture and internal organization. Our analysis of secondary sources highlighted a number of challenges for how to classify China's healthcare system in relation to these three dimensions. On the one hand, China resembles what Moran (2000) terms a \"command and control\" model aiming for universal (tax funded) coverage, with public hospitals substantially in government ownership and clinicians as state employees. However, on the other, we saw how the funding system was quite different. As a result of an early policy of marketization, public hospitals have, for some time, been expected to behave like SOEs, relying on the sale of drugs and treatments to remain economically viable.\nConclusion: To conclude, this paper highlights the usefulness of framing current healthcare reforms using the lens of the NPM. We find a high degree of convergence toward NPM in terms of policy debates and some formal policies in China. However, we also note different points of departure for reform and marked variations in the practice of hospital governance and management that are distinctive. In this regard, our analysis is consistent with wider observations in the literature about marked variations in NPM between countries, government levels, policy areas, tasks and over time (Laegreid, 2017; Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2011), a point that has been made especially in relation to China (Dong and Christensen, 2010; Christensen and Dong, 2012; Cheung, 2013).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how far plans to \"modernize\" hospital management in China are converging toward a global model of new public management (NPM) or represent a distinctive pathway.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper draws on a systematic review of available secondary sources published in English and Chinese to describe both the nature and trajectory of hospital management reforms in China.\nFindings: In China, while public hospital reforms bear many of the hallmarks of the NPM, they are distinctive in two key respects. First, the thrust of current reforms is to partially reverse, not extend, the trend toward marketization in order to strengthen the public orientation of public hospitals. Second is a marked gap between the rhetoric and reality of empowering managers and freeing them from political control.\nPractical implications: This paper develops a framework for understanding the drivers and obstacles to hospital management reforms in China that is useful for managers, clinicians and policy makers.\nOriginality/value: In China, few authors have considered NPM reform in relation to healthcare. This paper contributes in better understanding current reforms taking place in China's expanding healthcare sector and locates these within broader theoretical and policy debates.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Medicine, madness and murderers: the context of English forensic psychiatric hospitals	[ "Professionals", "Qualitative research", "Organizational change", "Psychiatry" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Increasingly in recent years scholars have highlighted the importance of exploring context in order to understand attitudes and behaviours (Griffin, 2007; Johns, 2006) in the workplace. Context has been defined as dynamic \"situational opportunities and constraints that affect the occurrence and meaning of organisational behaviour\" (Johns, 2006, p. 386) and is multi-level in nature (Johns, 2006; Pettigrew et al., 1992). A number of studies have explored the link between specific contextual factors and impacts on individuals or organisations (e.g. Mathieu and Taylor, 2007). Various scholars have investigated the aspects of context which are likely to lead to acceptance or resistance (McDermott and Keating, 2012; Barratt-Pugh and Bahn, 2015) of novel practices (i.e. change) introduced in a \"top down\" fashion, as well as the ways in which the adaptation of such practices by local actors facilitates implementation (Ansari et al., 2010; McDermott et al., 2013). Less attention has been paid to the relationship of context to ongoing challenges in the workplace which are not neatly resolved by workarounds (Campbell, 2012) or contextual adaptations. This paper focusses on this issue and in particular the impact of context on organisational actors' abilities to resolve such ongoing challenges.\nLefevbre's views of space: Johns (2006) views the physical dimension of context as comprising the built environment, temperature, light, decor and so on. For Lefevbre, the built environment is characterised by spaces and organisational space is both a thing and a set of processes and practices. This contradictory and ambiguous nature of social space represents a challenge to formal logic and means that it can only be understood dialectically. For Lefebvre, space cannot be viewed as an independent, pre-given and material reality. Instead, it is socially produced. Space can be described in terms of three dialectically interconnected processes: \"spatial practice\", \"representations of space\" and \"spaces of representation\", respectively. These processes correspond to \"perceived\", \"conceived\" and \"lived\" space.\nForensic psychiatric provision in secure settings: The empirical data are drawn from secure forensic psychiatric hospitals in England, which house offenders who are mentally disordered. These organisations embody inherent contradictions relating to the nature of the task (Johns, 2006); residents are patients and at the same time offenders. The aim is to rehabilitate and \"cure\" patients in a caring environment, but patients are detained against their will in a regime which applies pressure to comply with therapeutic interventions. A \"recovery\" (Shepherd et al., 2008) based approach to rehabilitation in contrast to the traditional medical models of treating people with severe mental illness aims to empower patients. Yet, these hospitals have at various times been the subject of public inquiries which suggest an emphasis on producing places of incarceration with staff engaged in excessive brutality and \"inflexible and over structured regimes\" (Martin, 1984, p. 55).\nMethods: The paper draws on a larger study aimed at providing a comprehensive description of long-stay patients in high and medium secure settings, to inform future service developments. The paper uses interviews with 22 doctors (consultant forensic psychiatrists), all of which were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. Some of the interviews were conducted on a face-to-face basis, but most (n=18) were undertaken by telephone. We used a mixture of purposive and snowball sampling to recruit participants across a broad geographical area. Initially, we contacted psychiatrists who were members of an advisory group informing commissioning decisions because we wanted to speak to individuals who might have a broad, as well as local knowledge. Additionally, since our study was aimed at making recommendations for change, we hypothesised that these people would be well placed to comment on alternative models of service. All interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. We also spent a day in each of three \"long stay\" secure forensic facilities where we visited wards, met and talked with staff and patients. For two of these visits we made notes as soon as we left the facility as we were not allowed to take in recording equipment. At the other visits we held a focus group with staff (two nurses, two psychiatrists and one psychologist) and digitally recorded this. We also held two focus groups at a forensic psychiatry conference each comprising three psychiatrists and two members of the research team. The interview questions and focus group discussions explored the ways in which service provision currently operated, as well as views on possible alternatives to current arrangements. Data also included notes relating to the layout and physical environment of the setting. Doctors from 20 different facilities were interviewed as our aim was to understand differences between facilities. In addition to these day long structured visits, we also visited two high secure NHS hospitals, four NHS medium secure units four independent sector medium secure units, spending between 90 minutes and 2 hours in each. We made notes about the nature of the facilities and the narratives that doctors provided about them.\nFindings: Spaces suffused with ideology\nDiscussion and conclusions: The findings are helpful in illuminating the relationship between context and ongoing challenges in the workplace in a number of ways. We can think of the physical dimension of context (Johns, 2006) as characterised by hospitals which constrain patients, reflecting relations of domination. This built environment also influences staff perceptions and attitudes and simultaneously contributes to the challenges related to the task faced by staff. The task dimension of the context (Johns, 2006) involves exercising both a protection and a policing role for patients who are a \"risk to self and others\" (Bean, 1987). Psychiatrists are also influenced by professional norms and values and in terms of the social dimensions of context (Johns, 2006) forensic psychiatry is a relatively small community nationally. However, drawing on Lefevbre's view of space as co-produced in a continuous manner helps us to delineate and understand the dynamic nature of this context and its relationships with the everyday actions and beliefs of the organisational actors concerned.\nConclusion: This paper's contribution is to demonstrate the importance of viewing context as co-produced in a continuous manner. It also illustrates the powerful relationship between the dynamic and subjective nature of context and the ability of organisational actors to resolve ongoing challenges. The paper uses Lefevbre's framework to place the physical dimension of context at the centre, as opposed to the periphery, of analysis. A final point concerns the importance of dialectical thinking and Lefevbre's use of the concept of sublation (or Aufhebung). In contexts which embody contradictions, sublation implies both preservation and change (Kauffman, 1966). In Lefebvre's dialectic, a contradiction when sublated does not reach a final state or resolution. Instead, although in one sense the contradiction is overcome or negated, it is also maintained and further developed. For the psychiatrists, the contradiction between containment and rehabilitation is overcome by the creation of specific spaces for housing \"long stay\" patients. At the same time, these changes represent a development of the contradiction. It appears in a different form, involving new spatial practices and representations of space, but is preserved nevertheless. Of course this does not imply that this preservation should be seen as a fixed entity. Instead, by locating our analysis in Lefebvre's ideas about space as both a product and a process, we can identify moments in the spatial and temporal flow, which enable us to understand \"context\" in greater detail and in particular, the processes underpinning the dynamic, multi-level and ongoing practices involved in its production and reproduction.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to add to the understanding of context by shedding light on the relationship between context and organisational actors' abilities to resolve ongoing challenges.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors used qualitative data collection (interviews and focus groups with staff and site visits to English forensic psychiatry hospitals) and the analysis was informed by Lefebvre's writings on space.\nFindings: Responses to ongoing challenges were both constrained and facilitated by the context, which was negotiated and co-produced by the actors involved. Various (i.e. societal and professional) dimensions of context interacted to create tensions, which resulted in changes in service configuration. These changes were reconciled, to some extent, via discourse. Despite some resolution, the co-production of context preserved contradictions which mean that ongoing challenges were modified, but not resolved entirely.\nOriginality/value: The paper highlights the importance of viewing context as co-produced in a continuous manner. This helps us to delineate and understand its dynamic nature and its relationship with the everyday actions and beliefs of the organisational actors concerned.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Work-to-family and family-to-work conflicts among employed single parents in Germany	[ "Family-to-work conflicts", "Job demands–resources model", "Single parents", "Work-to-family conflicts" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The experience of work-family conflicts among individuals has been increased within the past few decades (Winslow, 2016). These inter role conflicts between work and family lives may be experienced in two directions: traditional work has focused solely on work-to-family conflicts (WFC), i.e. employment conditions spill over negatively to family life (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985). Following work highlighted the bidirectional nature of conflicts, addressing also the possibility of family-to-work conflicts (FWC) where family issues lead to conflicts in work life (Duxbury et al., 1992; Gutek et al., 1991; Netemeyer et al., 1996). Research has shown that for WFC working conditions are more predictive, whereas for FWC predominantly family and household characteristics matter (Byron, 2005; Frone et al., 1997; Kinnunen and Mauno, 1998). This relationship may be moderated by family type with different family types expected to have a diverse range of adaptive strategies and resources (Voydanoff, 2002). Extensive research has investigated differences in the experience of work-family conflicts between parents and childless couples, mothers and fathers, as well as dual-earner and single-earner families (Allen and Finkelstein, 2014; Duxbury et al., 1994). The challenge of integrating the responsibilities of work and family life is seen as especially pronounced for parents, as opposed to childless couples or single persons, because parents are faced with greater demands in the family domain (Winslow, 2016). Even though the work-family conflicts approach is designed to understand how work-life interactions are experienced by diverse groups in society, the majority of research is, at least implicitly, built on the traditional family (consisting of a mother, a father and children), and neglects the reality of much more diverse families, including single parents, same-sex couples and multi-generational families (Beauregard et al., 2009; Ozbilgin et al., 2011). The specific challenges of single parents have up to now received less attention, though they should be even more disadvantaged when compared with two-parent families, because they must cope with demands from both life spheres on their own. This is particularly true for research in Germany, and studies have almost exclusively addressed single mothers (Hubgen, 2018).\nWork-to-family and family-to-work conflicts: Research on the work-family interface addresses the effects of performing multiple roles in different life spheres, such as being a spouse, a parent and a paid worker. The role strain hypothesis states that having multiple roles results in stressful conflicts because different roles create opposing pressures (Kahn et al., 1964). Taking as a basic assumption that people have limited time and energy, the role strain approach proposes that the more roles an individual has to fulfill and the greater the competing or even incompatible demands from different roles, the greater is the need to set priorities and negotiate with other parties (Goode, 1960). Consequently, the chances that a person can meet all expectations are diminished, thus increasing role conflict and strain. As defined above, this paper uses a bidirectional understanding of such interrole conflicts induced by the combination of work and family roles, including both WFC and FWC. According to previous studies, both WFC and FWC are a typical part of everyday lives in all modern societies, no less in the German workforce (e.g. Beham and Drobnic, 2010; Gallie and Russell, 2009; Reimann et al., 2017). There is evidence for the bidirectional nature of WFC and FWC, because they have different antecedents and outcomes (Byron, 2005; Kossek and Ozeki, 1999), though the levels of WFC are usually higher than those of FWC (O'Driscoll et al., 2004).\nAntecedents of WFC and FWC: job and family demands and resources: Regarding the antecedents of WFC and FWC, both work and family characteristics have direct effects on these conflicts (Voydanoff, 2002). The well-established job demands-resources (JD-R) model (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007; Demerouti et al., 2001) has been used to differentiate between job demands and job resources. Job demands include the physical, mental, social and organizational aspects of a job that require effort and skills and are therefore associated with certain physical or mental costs; job resources are conditions that help employees meet the requirements of their job by reducing its physical or psychosocial costs or by providing compensation for such costs. Job resources, however, are also important in their own right, thus helping employees to reconcile their work and family life spheres (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007). Research based on the JD-R model has shown that job demands such as long and irregular working hours or expectations of constant availability are associated with higher WFC, whereas job resources such as social support from colleagues and supervisors and control over the scheduling of working hours are directly linked to lower WFC (e.g. Allen, 2001; Schieman et al., 2009).\nData and methods: Data\nResults: Mean differences in WFC, FWC, job and family demands and resources between single parents and parents from two-parent families\nDiscussion and conclusions: This contribution is the first to analyze the relevance of job and family demands and resources for WFC and FWC among single parents in Germany. Our aim was to investigate to which degree single parents face specific problems in reconciling competing demands in work and family life compared to parents from two-parent families. Though they represent an increasingly important group in the workforce, up to now the specific challenges of employed single parents have largely been neglected in research as well as policy design in Germany.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine whether and how employed single-parents differ from parents in two-parent families in their experience of work-to-family conflict (WFC) and family-to-work conflict (FWC). Looking at job-related as well as family-related demands and resources, this research investigated to what degree these demands and resources contribute to differences in WFC and FWC, how their relevance in predicting conflicts varies between single parents and other parents and the role of compositional differences in work and family demands and resources.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Cross-sectional linear regression analyses were applied to analyze a random sample of employees in large work organizations in Germany. The sample included 3,581 parents with children up to the age of 25, of whom 346 were single parents.\nFindings: The results indicated that single parents face more FWC, but not more WFC, than other parents. For all parents, job demands such as overtime, supervising responsibilities and availability expectations were associated with higher levels of WFC, whereas job resources such as job autonomy, support from supervisors and flexible working hours were associated with lower levels of WFC. In predicting FWC, family demands and resources played only a minor role. However, results provide only scant evidence of differences between single parents and other parents in terms of the effects of job and family demands and resources.\nOriginality/value: This study offers interesting insights into the diversity of WFC and FWC experiences in Germany. It provides first evidence of the impact of job and family demands and resources on both directions of work-family conflicts among employed single parents as a specific social group.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Antecedents and consequences of social media marketing use: an empirical study of the UK exporting B2B SMEs	[ "SMEs", "Export Performance", "Social media marketing", "B-to-B", "Structural equation modeling (SEM)" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Some have hailed the use of different social media platforms as the next source of competitive advantage (Ahi et al., 2017; Alarcon et al., 2015; Christodoulides et al., 2015; Jun and Park, 2017; Tang et al., 2016; Siamagka et al., 2015; Neeley and Leonardi, 2018). Moreover, organizations are increasing their presence on many social media platforms (Ahi et al., 2017; Michaelidou et al., 2011; Tang et al., 2016; He et al., 2013). As a result, many scholars have been motivated to study the use of social media to communicate with customers, widen their experience (Wilson et al., 2011; Nisar, Prabhakar, and Strakova, 2019), and employ social media strategy to reach consumers (Kietzmann et al., 2011; Duff and Segijn, 2019). This way of marketing appears to be especially advantageous for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) due to its flexible adaptation of social networks for both marketing and the development of new products (Pentina et al., 2012). Social media can be deployed even by SMEs due to their low cost and minimal technical requirements (Ferrer et al., 2013). As a result, social media use continues to grow exponentially among businesses and is rapidly becoming a crucial business management phenomenon (Trainor et al., 2014). Organizations are therefore using more platforms (Kietzmann et al., 2011). The social media may be an increasingly popular choice for businesses because they allow many to communicate with many, instead of being restricted to private one-to-one conversations (Siamagka et al., 2015). Businesses can use the social media to promote their products, services and brands. Various studies have investigated the use of social media in business and found that it has many benefits (Siamagka et al., 2015).\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Social media use\n3. Conceptual model and hypotheses: In the B2B context, prospect development and customer acquisition are two central elements of the sales process (Jussila et al., 2014; Rodriguez et al., 2012; Ancillai et al., 2019). Heinonen and Michelsson (2010) have found that prospect initiation is a constant challenging requirement for B2B activities. Customers going out of business, or switching to other suppliers, or simply not maintaining relationships, show that business is dynamic. Additionally, sales professionals must collect detailed information about their customers to learn more about their needs and their buying processes, and must, at the same time, learn more about specific markets beyond the B2C context (Eid et al., 2006).\n4. Research methodology: 4.1 Data collection\n5. Data analysis: SEM appears to be an adequate analysis instrument, for two main reasons. First, our hypotheses create a complex pattern of interrelationships among the variables showing the multiple ways in which they could affect each other. Second, the suggested variables PEU, SMU, OB, and export performance represent higher-order constructs that could not be captured with one single item and thus were subject to measurement error. To control the measurement error and avoid method variance by applying related but different estimation methods, we tested all hypotheses, taking the SEM approach. For this research we took the two-stage approach to structural equation modeling (SEM) proposed by Anderson and Gerbing (1988). The SEM technique was suggested because it is the most appropriate and most widely used for testing when a model is complex and has many constructs; this applies to the present study (Hair et al., 2014). In the first stage, we analyzed the measurement model for adequacy, and used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to assess the reliability and validity of the measurement model. After achieving a satisfactory fit, the second stage involved testing the structural model and the hypotheses by the path coefficients provided for each hypothesized relationship (Bagozzi and Yi, 2012).\n6. Discussion and implications: The purpose of this paper is (A) to enhance our understanding of the antecedents of B-to-B SMEs use of social media marketing for their international marketing activities and (B) to enhance our understanding of its impact on the B-to-B SMEs export performance.\n7. Limitations and suggestions for further research: As with any study, there are certain limitations that should be recognized and addressed in the future. Although a great effort was made to obtain a larger sample size of UK exporting companies, the final one used in this study is somewhat limited; hence, any application of its findings should be cautious. First, this study did not examine how far certain social media platforms had more impact than others on export performance. Further research could focus on social media platforms at the micro level; this is the most critical next step with B2B firms because the study has evidence only of the respondents' use of social media in general. As mentioned by Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), many social media applications, such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, with distinct or unique functionalities and characteristics, are available for these firms to use. Second, the measures employed for social media use, such as understanding customers' views and preferences, understanding competition in different markets and developing international business contacts, were new, although they were shown to be valid and reliable in predicting export performance. Third, this study did not address the challenges/barriers entailed in social media use in the international marketing environment. Future research could examine the challenges that might arise from using this new technology. Moreover, our survey covers only a limited sample of cultures. Future research could cover more countries, yielding greater variation in cultural dimensions. Further research could also apply additional cultural measures to account for the possibility of cultural differences within a nation, which could help identify further effects. Fourth, the use of the social media is as important in the business-to-customer context as it is in the B-to-B context. Future research could explore the factors that affect the use of the social media when firms are seeking to export their products to end users, which may be different from those in the B-to-B context. Future studies should, therefore, check the robustness of these findings by conducting similar research in other industrial contexts. Different industrial settings might shed further light on the reasons why the results of this research show effects distinct from those hypothesized. Furthermore, because internet marketing is changing rapidly, with new and disruptive technologies and platforms constantly being introduced into the market, research in this domain is time sensitive. Finally, this study focused on the exporters' use of social media in the UK context. Future research should look at other contexts, such as emerging markets, which are very likely to be different from the UK context. Comparative studies based on large samples from many countries present another future research avenue.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The social media have enabled companies to reach out to global markets and provided them with the opportunity to customize their strategies and offerings in an unprecedented way. Given the scant empirical evaluation of social media use in the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) business-to-business (B-to-B) context, this paper aims to offer a comprehensive description of the antecedents and consequences of social media use in international B-to-B SMEs and the way in which this use affects their export performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses a sample of 277 British B-to-B SMEs and uses positivist research with a quantitative approach, adopting a survey strategy through questionnaires and structural equation modeling.\nFindings: The results reveal that the use of social media influences export performance through the quality of international business contacts - understanding customers' views and preferences, brand awareness and knowledge of the competition in various international markets. This study contributes to the emerging literature on B-to-B SMEs digital marketing by determining the mechanism through which B-to-B SMEs may benefit from using the social media in their efforts to export.\nOriginality/value: Despite the promising potential of the social media, especially for export-oriented companies, very limited attention has hitherto been paid to the relationship between the use of social media and export performance. This study attempts to fill the gap by investigating the extent to which actual use of social media impacts on the performance of exporting firms.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Efficiency of Australian superannuation funds: a comparative assessment	[ "Efficiency", "Australian superannuation funds", "Data envelopment analysis", "AustraPerformance measurement" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction and research motivation: The Australian superannuation industry plays a major role in the three-pillar retirement system composed of the age pension, compulsory superannuation and voluntary contributions or savings (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009). As at June 2013, superannuation assets totalled approximately A$1.6 trillion, or the size of Australia's GDP ((Australian Prudential Regulation Authority APRA), 2014). Australian superannuation assets are the fifth largest in the world, ranked after the Netherlands, Iceland, Switzerland and the UK (OECD, 2014). There are five functional classifications of Australian superannuation funds: corporate, industry, public sector, retail and small funds (Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), 2005).\n2. Research methodology: 2.1 Background\n3. Results and analysis of major findings: 3.1 Descriptive statistics\n4. Conclusions and implications: This study estimated efficiency scores for Australian superannuation funds using the DEA technique. The sample size was 183 funds, representing approximately 79 per cent of 231 largest active funds as at 30 June 2012. Most of the inefficient funds had very low efficiency scores and were fell into the lower quintiles such as Quintiles 4 (scored 0.200-0.399) and 5 (scored 0.001-0.199). Consequently, input reduction targets were significantly higher for these two quintiles. Similarly, input reduction targets were high under the period DEA estimates. In order to be comparatively efficient, Quintile 4 funds were required to reduce total expenses by 75 per cent (-0.754) and volatility of return by 80 per cent (-0.801). Similarly, Quintile 5 funds needed to reduce total expenses by, on average, 83 per cent (-0.824) and volatility of return by 89 per cent (-0.894). These targets would be extremely difficult, if not possible, for inefficient funds to achieve in practice. The average minimum efficiency scores in both individual year and period analysis ranged between 0.034 and 0.046. As the maximum efficiency score is 1, very low minimum scores indicate that performance quality in regards to relative economic efficiency varies enormously among the sample funds.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to measure efficiency of superannuation funds using data envelopment analysis (DEA), using data related to financial performance of superannuation funds. The sample comprises 183 superannuation funds covering approximately 79 per cent of the 231 largest Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)-regulated funds in 2012. The research covers a period of seven years from 2005 to 2012. The results indicate that most Australian superannuation funds are inefficient relative to the benchmark efficiency frontier based on efficient funds. The findings emphasise the importance of improving the efficiency of Australian superannuation funds by reducing overall fund expenses to narrow the gap in performance between efficient and inefficient funds.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study aims to contribute to policy, theory and practice in several dimensions. Member protection and the efficiency of the superannuation system are topical issues (Donald, 2009). Despite its importance from a regulatory point of view, efficiency has only been discussed in relation to operational issues such as managing agency relationships, fees and charges, investment return or economies of scale. The relative efficiency of the Australian superannuation system from an economic productivity perspective has rarely been examined, except for a study by Njie (2006), where the Malmquist productivity DEA technique was used to measure the efficiency of Australia's retirement income system.\nFindings: Most inefficient funds had very low efficiency scores and were fell into the lower quintiles such as Quintiles 4 (scored 0.200-0.399) and 5 (scored 0.001-0.199). Consequently, input reduction targets were significantly higher for these two quintiles. Similarly, input reduction targets were high under the period DEA estimates. In order to be comparatively efficient, Quintile 4 funds were required to reduce total expenses by 75 per cent (-0.754) and volatility of return by 80 per cent (-0.801). Similarly, Quintile 5 funds needed to reduce total expenses by, on average, 83 per cent (-0.824) and volatility of return by 89 per cent (-0.894).\nResearch limitations/implications: As in other empirical research, this study also depended heavily on the data collected from the secondary sources such as APRA database and other financial reports. The issues of measurement errors in data sources such as APRA database are well documented (see, e.g. Cummins, 2012). This issue needs the attention of future research on the efficiency of superannuation funds.\nPractical implications: The findings on individual year DEA estimates indicate that most funds were inefficient due to high expenses. Therefore, mandatory disclosure of fees and charges in a comparable manner may be necessary to justify fee payments and to address transparency and accountability issues, which are critical issues identified by the Cooper Review and the academic literature (Australian Government, 2014; Cooper et al., 2010; Gallery and Gallery, 2006).\nSocial implications: The issue of Australian superannuation funds concentrating the majority of fund assets in highly volatile investment vehicles such as the share markets has been in the spotlight in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. There have been proposals to better diversify superannuation assets in other asset classes (Cooper et al., 2010).\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the current literature on superannuation funds by investigating efficiency. As efficiency studies using DEA have not been conducted on the Australian superannuation industry, this study also contributes to the academic literature on DEA and its extensive applications to various economic sectors. Efficiency scores using DEA, ranking, trends and shifts in the efficiency frontiers could be obtained for Australian superannuation funds on an on-going or annual basis.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Organic shoppers' involvement in organic foods: self and identity	[ "Satisfaction", "Social identity", "Involvement", "Role identity", "Mass media", "Organic shopper" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Organic foods constitute the fastest-growing sector of the American food marketplace (Organic Trade Association (OTA), 2017). The growth of the organic food market is closely associated with the growth of the green/sustainable market because organic food is produced by using \"the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations\" (USDA National Organic Program, 2017). The growing number of organic shoppers shows positive attitudes toward organic foods (Kim and Kim, 2018). More organic and natural food supermarket chains (e.g. Whole Foods Market) have emerged, and the largest US grocers such as Wal-Mart Stores and Kroger have offered more organic products due to rising demand (Peterson, 2017; Walsh, 2014). Amazon now owns Whole Foods Market and used the media to change the perception of organic food prices there (Simon, 2017). The high price of organic foods has been the main obstacle to consumers (Doorn and Verhoef, 2015). However, studies have shown that consumers are willing to pay more for organic foods (Vecchio et al., 2016). It is possible that consumers' involvement in organic food accounts for the different findings. Some consumers may have different attitudes and purchase intentions toward organic foods (Tarkiainen and Sundqvist, 2009; Thogersen et al., 2012). Since organic shoppers have unique demographic profiles (Curl et al., 2013) and values (Grebitus and Dumortier, 2016), their involvement in organic food will play an important role in their shopping behaviors. This assumes that they seek knowledge and information about organic foods from the mass media. Although mass media has been widely discussed in consumer behavior, its role has not been studied in the organic food context, even though organic foods are a popular topic. The growth of organic food market has boosted the media to influence on consumer perception and consequently consumer demand for organic foods. Thus, when we predict attitudes toward organic foods, consumers' involvement and mass media should be considered. Accordingly, this study presents organic shoppers' values associated with the consumption of organic food.\n2. Literature review: Self and identity\n3. Method: Data collection\n4. Results: Measurement model\n5. Discussion: This study proposes and examines a conceptual model to understand organic shoppers' perceived self-identity via social identity and role identity. The results support that their strongly defined social identity and role identity are significant antecedents of their health consciousness and SRCB. This finding explains why organic shoppers highly value their health and the environment (i.e. self- and others-oriented values). Organic shoppers see themselves in a different social group and their social roles are important to them. They see themselves as different from others who are not organic shoppers in terms of their beliefs and values. They are not only concerned with their personal health, but also with others by SRCB. They like to think of themselves as organic shoppers. These findings may be theoretically explained by the relationship between identities and social structures. Burke (1980) claimed that an individual constructs the meanings of his or her own role identity and these meanings intervene in the relationship between the socially constructed role and the behavior. In this sense, social identity represents natural societal processes that create group and intergroup phenomena in daily life (Brown and Capozza, 2006; Haslam et al., 2009). This study demonstrates that social identity influences an individual's goals and values. Thus, an individual's self-identity should be viewed as a social self and a role self.\n6. Limitations and future research directions: This study has some limitations. This study used a cross-sectional design, which involved data collection at one specific point in time. Perhaps, the use of longitudinal or experimental data would be desirable, especially for SEM for performing advanced analysis of causal relationships among variables. Since the research data were tailored to organic shoppers, future research drawing on samples from the general population could be valuable. Since 78.3 percent of the respondents were Caucasian, these findings may not be representative of all ethnic groups. Future researchers should examine more diverse demographic and geographical groups. The marketing literature on organic products and empirical work are limited. Based on the model created for this study, the next step would be to extend its application and to test these findings across different contexts using more diverse consumer types. In terms of the effect of involvement and mass media in organic foods, non-organic shoppers may be interesting. Additionally, future research may study the effect of social media on organic food purchase. Because of the rapid proliferation and growing popularity of social media today, future research may consider the impact of social media on organic foods.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how identities drive customer values, attitudes toward organic foods and satisfaction, all of which influence world or mouth (WOM).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Questionnaire surveys were administered to the purchasers of organic foods. In total, 512 completed responses were obtained for data analysis.\nFindings: Strongly defined social identity and role identity are significant antecedents of consumers' health consciousness and socially responsible consumer behavior (SRCB). This finding explains why organic shoppers value their health and the environment (i.e. self- and others-oriented values). Additionally, health consciousness and SRCB significantly influence attitudes toward organic foods. The study reveals that attitudes toward organic foods positively influence organic shoppers' satisfaction, and their satisfaction increases positive WOM. Finally, the moderating effects of involvement and mass media are examined. When organic shoppers are strongly involved with organic foods, their health consciousness has a more positive effect on their attitudes toward organic foods. However, organic shoppers' involvement did not moderate the effect of SRCB on attitudes toward organic foods. Likewise, the mass media did not moderate the effect of health consciousness and SRCB on attitudes toward organic foods.\nOriginality/value: This study incorporates critical factors such as the antecedents of the customer values to develop a comprehensive model for understanding of organic shoppers' consumption of organic foods.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Dynamic performance assessment of a supply chain process: A case from pharmaceutical supply chain in India	[ "Performance management", "Supply chain", "Data envelopment analysis", "Process efficiency", "Pharmaceuticals industry" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. General summary: The pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC) used to be seen as an instrument to supply products to market in an effective way. This study is conducted as there is a shortage of tools to measure supply chain efficiency in a dynamic environment. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has proven to be a reliable, flexible, and efficient tool for measuring supply chain performance. The study examines model of efficiency which is the technical efficiency. The information obtained from this study can help managers to identify the inefficient operations that take place in a PSC so that they can take the right remedial actions for continuous improvement. Data have been collected at various locations. The results obtained from the analysis indicate that in dynamic DEA the ranks of decision-making units (DMUs) have reversed. A typical PSC will consist of the one or more of the following nodes:\n2. Review of literature: The effort to measure the operation performance of a supply chain using different matrices has been a key research area in performance measurement. A framework to assess the operational performance of a supply chain was proposed by Gunasekaran et al. (2004) and Beamon (1999). Feedback is an important mechanism to control the system (Kumar et al., 2013a, b), feedback is available in different forms of parameters, one of them is performance efficiency (Dong and Frank Chen, 2005). Dynamic performance measurement gives better results due to incorporation of lag in the time series data (Zhou et al., 2006). Balance score card has been a major tool to measure supply chain performance (Bhagwat and Sharma, 2007; Cho et al., 2012). The world is changing and so are our systems therefore need of dynamic performance measurement is essential (Forrester, 1961). To incorporate the dynamics of systems a new slack adjusted data envelopment analysis (SA-DEA) model which explicitly incorporates an influence of slacks into its efficiency measurement, discusses the use of various efficiencies and index measures for DEA dynamic analysis (Sueyoshi and Goto, 2001). Purchasing performance evaluation, is done with DEA (Easton et al., 2002). An integrated benchmarking framework illustrated in the context of a large supply chain system comprised of 102 DCs using DEA (Ross and Droge, 2002). Talluri et al. (2006) presented a chance-constrained data envelopment analysis approach in the presence of multiple performance measures that are uncertain. (Boute et al., 2007; Hoberg et al., 2007; Sarimveis et al., 2008) applied linear control theory to study the effect of various inventory policies on order and inventory variability, that are key drivers of supply chain performance. Wu (2009) presented a hybrid model using DEA, decision trees, and neural networks to assess supplier performance. Xu et al. (2009) studied the supply chain performance evaluation of a furniture manufacturing industry and identified the main uncertainty factors affecting evaluation process, and then model and analyze them using rough data envelopment analysis models. Cheng et al. (2010) has demonstrated the modeling of construction supply chains using the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) framework developed by the Supply Chain Council. The SCOR modeling framework provides a structured and systematic way to model and decompose a supply chain from conceptual representation to process element specification. Cho et al. (2012) have proposed a framework for service supply chain performance measurement. Taxonomy of literatures consisting performance measurement of supply chain with their objectives is presented in Table I.\n3. The methodology of DEA: DEA is a mathematical programming approach to evaluate the efficiency of homogeneous production units. As a performance measure, DEA has an attractive feature that its score can account for multiple resources used and multiple outputs created in business operations. The output of DEA is a composite score that indicates a firm's relative efficiency as compared to its peer firms.\n4. Dynamic performance measurement using vector auto regression (VAR): To incorporate the lag effect while measuring efficiency in pharmaceutical industry, a good estimate of lag is required. The lag time period is estimated using VAR (p). The VAR model has attractive properties in providing consistent and asymptotically normal estimates regardless possible non-stationary, unit roots or co-integration in the input or output series. First, the VAR estimation provides information about the dynamic interrelation among inputs and outputs. Thereafter, the information is used to derive output responses due to shocks in inputs, which can be used as estimators of the lag parameters (Figure 1).\n5. Discussion of results and future scope: In this study we have developed an integrated methodology to incorporate lag effects of input consumption into the DEA efficiency measurement. In particular, we have formulated lag effects via parametric modeling, and the resultant formulation is a generalization of the static DEA model. Moreover, our methodology integrates the dynamic DEA formulation with the VAR estimation technique to systematically estimate the dynamic parameters. The proposed methodology is illustrated with an application to advertising efficiencies of XYZ company from the pharmaceutical industry in North India. Five year data consisting of 60 data points has been collected at five different DCs (CNFs) for five variables (two input and three output). The results demonstrate that lag effects can lead to changes in efficiency scores, rankings, and efficiency classification. So, using static DEA models in dynamic production can be potentially misleading as many production situations involve substantial dynamics. This methodology can be applied to a wide range of evaluation problems in place of conventional static DEA models, and therefore provides further insights into firms' dynamic performance.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: A variety of tools are available to measure supply chain efficiency, but there are a few methods available for assessing efficiency in dynamic environments. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the use of data envelopment analysis (DEA) with the help vector auto regression in measuring internal supply chain performance in dynamic environment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two DEA models were developed - the static DEA that is traditional DEA methodology and the dynamic DEA. The models are further enhanced with scenario analysis to derive more meaningful business insights for managers in making benchmarking and resource planning decisions.\nFindings: The results demonstrate that lagged effects can lead to changes in efficiency scores, rankings, and efficiency classification. So, using static DEA models in dynamic environment can be potentially misleading. Using impulse response analysis it has been seen that shocks given to marketing strategy in MR affects more at each of the decision-making unit's (DMU's) compared to other variables, further the authors could also investigate the dependent variables (output) shocks to input variables.\nSocial implications: Methodology can be applied to a wide range of evaluation problems in place of conventional DEA models. Results show that lagged effects can lead to substantial discrepancies in evaluation results. Biased evaluation results would easily lead to erroneous decision and policy making for the firm. Therefore the authors should always take a broader perspective in evaluating longitudinal performance by incorporating the effects into evaluation and decision-making processes. Future work of this study could look into the possibility of modeling in a stochastic supply chain environment. In addition, it will also be interesting to look into evaluating the stochastic DEA model in multiple time periods in order to examine whether there is any technological influence on the supply chain efficiency.\nOriginality/value: The contribution of this study provides useful insights into the use of DDEA as a modeling tool to aid managerial decision making in assessing supply chain efficiency in dynamic environment.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Lean readiness within emergency departments: a conceptual framework	[ "Healthcare", "Emergency department", "Lean readiness", "Lean system" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Healthcare providers around the globe are facing tremendous pressure to improve patient satisfaction and to serve more patients (Institute of Medicine, 2012; OECD, 2002; Porter and Lee, 2013). Emergency departments (EDs) specifically are facing huge challenges with regard to providing good-quality care and reducing waiting times for patients (Dickson et al., 2009). The challenges are coming from the continuous demand and tight budgets, leading some hospitals to deliver poor performance, which impacts patient satisfaction (Dickson et al., 2009).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Lean in the healthcare context\n3. Methodology: Prior to the development of the HLRA conceptual framework, a great deal of literature was reviewed to identify the key practices required for LS implementation within healthcare; in addition, ED best-quality practices, such as those cited by The Royal College of Emergency Medicine, were reviewed.\n4. Proposed healthcare lean readiness assessment framework and findings: This section explains the rationale behind the development of the HLRA framework. It highlights the important lean readiness categories (top management and leadership, human resources, patient relations, supplier relations, processes and CI), as found in the literature. It also includes an explanation of each category and element and why it is important for LSs.\n5. Discussion, conclusion and implications: The extensive literature review allowed the author to identify several lean readiness factors deemed essential for LS implementation within the healthcare sector, and specifically in EDs, including: employee empowerment, training, top management commitment, the use of problem-solving tools, VM, patient involvement, the quality of suppliers, etc. (Bushell and Shelest, 2002; Radnor, 2011; Shazali et al., 2013; Al-Balushi et al., 2014; Narayanamurthy et al., 2018). This helped to address the first research question:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework to assess the lean readiness within emergency departments (EDs) and identify the key quality practices deemed essential for lean system (LS) implementation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An extensive review of the lean healthcare literature was conducted, including LS implementation within the healthcare sector (both generally and in EDs), best ED quality practices, essential factors for LS implementation within healthcare and lean readiness assessment frameworks. The authors identified six main categories from a literature review (top management and leadership, human resources, patient relations, supplier relations, processes and continuous improvement (CI)), and validated these based on experts' opinion.\nFindings: Several factors were identified as crucial for EDs, including top management and leadership, human resources, patient relations, supplier relations, processes and CI.\nResearch limitations/implications: The framework has not yet been tested, which prevents the author from declaring it fit for EDs.\nPractical implications: This framework will help ED managers determine the factors that will enable/hinder the implementation of LSs within their premises.\nOriginality/value: To the author's knowledge, this is the first lean readiness assessment framework for EDs and one of the few lean readiness assessment frameworks in the literature.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Knowledge creation in marketing: the role of predictive analytics	[ "Predictive process", "Data handling", "Multivariate analysis", "Market research", "Knowledge creation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: A cornerstone of innovation in the knowledge-based economy is information. But to use information to improve decision-making and stimulate innovation, we must convert it to knowledge. The challenge of converting information to knowledge was first identified by Tom Peters in his book Thriving on Chaos (1991). He said \"we are drowning on information and starved for knowledge!\" The challenge has increased dramatically in recent years, with experts estimating that in the next three years (2007-2009) humanity will generate more data than it has in the past 1,000 years (Mark, 2006).\nWhat is predictive analytics: Predictive analytics is not a revolutionary approach. The statistical techniques underlying the field were developed in the 1920s, while the concept of \"exploratory data analysis\" was proposed by the statistician John Tukey of Princeton University in the mid-1970s. Predictive analytics uses confirmed relationships between explanatory and criterion variables from past occurrences to predict future outcomes. The predictions are most often values suggesting the likelihood a particular behavior or event will take place in the future (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictive_analytics).Predictive analytics and data mining are sometimes viewed as one and the same. But in reality they are separate interacting processes. Data mining first searches for data patterns and identifies promising relationships. The relationships are based on searching data (numbers), text (words or phrases), web movements (click through and time-spent patterns), visual images and so on. Predictive analytics then uses confirmed relationships to predict future trends, events and behavior patterns.Data mining searches large volumes of data for patterns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_mining). It is generally thought of as involving two phases. The first phase is considered exploratory because the objective is to discover interesting, non-obvious relationships hidden in a database that have a high potential for creating knowledge, improving decision-making and providing more value to customers. This is an automated process that uses computer-based methods, referred to as \"machine-learning\" methods, to identify patterns of information in data. Many of the methods, such as neural networking and genetic algorithms, emerged from artificial intelligence and are used because they are efficient in exploring large databases.The second phase of data mining involves testing and confirmation of relationships revealed through the discovery process. It is a semi-automatic, \"human-learning\" process as opposed to a \"machine-learning\" approach. Hypotheses developed in the initial discovery phase are assessed. Even weak or not well-understood relationships can be examined, revised, confirmed or rejected. When relationships are identified and confirmed through data mining, they can then be used in predictive analytics.Predictive analytics is most often thought of as predictive modeling. But increasingly the term includes descriptive and decision modeling as well. All three modeling approaches involve extensive data analysis, but have different purposes and rely on different statistical techniques.Predictive models analyze past performance to assess how likely a customer is to exhibit a specific behavior in the future. The models also seek out subtle data patterns to answer questions about customer performance, such as fraud detection models. Predictive models often perform calculations during live transactions, for example, to evaluate the risk or opportunity of a given customer or transaction when an ATM or credit card is used.Descriptive models \"describe\" relationships in data and are used to classify customers, prospects, events or activities into groups. Unlike predictive models that focus on predicting a single customer behavior (such as credit risk), descriptive models identify many different relationships between customers, products or activities. But descriptive models do not rank-order customers by their likelihood of taking a particular action the way predictive models do. Instead, descriptive models are used \"offline,\" for example, to categorize customers by product or service preferences, behavior or stage in their life cycle.Decision models describe the relationship between all the elements of a decision. This includes what is known about the data and relationships, the decision itself, and the predicted outcome of the decision. The objective is to predict the results of decisions involving many variables. The models are used to maximize certain outcomes while minimizing others, i.e. to achieve optimization for a particular situation. Decision models are generally used offline to develop a set of business rules that are likely to produce the desired outcome for customers, events, activities or organizations.By using predictive analytics, researchers and data analysts help organizations solve problems or pursue opportunities, and identify relationships as they currently exist or as they are likely to exist in the future. The models developed using predictive analytics are very useful in knowledge creation. But to properly apply the knowledge created by predictive analytics requires a great deal of expertise.Factors stimulating application of predictive analytics\nPredictive analytics applications: Data mining and predictive analytics are increasingly popular because of the substantial contributions they can make in controlling costs and growing revenue. Marketing is among the most frequent applications of the techniques. Many organizations are using the techniques to help manage all phases of the customer life cycle, including acquiring new customers, increasing revenue from existing customers, and retaining good customers. By determining characteristics of good customers, companies can target prospects with similar characteristics. Profiling customers who have bought a particular product can focus attention on similar customers that have not bought a product or service (cross-selling). Identifying customers that have left enables a company to understand customers that are at risk for leaving (reducing churn or attrition), because it is usually far less expensive to retain a customer than acquire a new one. Whether you think about product development, advertising, distribution and retailing, or marketing research and business intelligence, data mining and predictive analytics increasingly are being applied.Marketing and sales\nLikely future developments: So what does the future hold for the emerging field of predictive analytics? Data will continue to increase exponentially, but data quality will need to improve. There is no indication the amount of data will decrease. Indeed, it appears evident that it will continue to increase substantially. The task ahead then is to ensure the quality of data increases. Much progress has been made in recent years, but the pressure to cut costs and make quick decisions will slow efforts to improve the quality of data.If used properly, the huge databases created by businesses worldwide will revolutionize the ability to identify, understand and predict customer needs and market developments. Indeed, access to the information captured and made manageable by modern databases is the business equivalent of the scientific breakthroughs of the last century when the fundamental building blocks of matter were cracked open and understood (Mitchel, 1998). To date most predictive analytics applications have concentrated on structured data (numeric and categorical) such as date last paid, geographic location, average payment, days delinquent or average balance, and number and type of products and services purchased. Numeric values such as these are readily understandable and computable. For example, analyses easily recognize that a customer who uses a product or service ten or more times a year is in a different category than one who seldom or never uses the product.Predictive analytics will increasingly rely on mixed-data models that examine both structured and unstructured data. For example, unstructured text that accompanies many customer records such as \"customer hung up the phone,\" \"customer said she has been sick\" and \"customer said the check was in the mail\" has not been usable. Customer service reps often record these comments as well as brief shorthand notes. But while the comments are understandable to those who record them, they are not immediately understandable to a computer in the same way structured data is. Recently, however, unstructured data and analysis techniques have been incorporated into predictive modeling. For example, collections centers for banks and credit card companies are beginning to use mixed-data models that are as much as 60 percent more accurate than structured data only models used previously. This increased accuracy equates to millions of dollars in increased collections. Similar results have been developed in predicting customer losses in financial services, churn in wireless telecommunications, and fraud in insurance and healthcare (Rubel, 2006). Unstructured data including video and graphics images from social network web sites like YouTube and MySpace increasingly will be incorporated into data mining and predictive analytics models (Goldman, 2006). Finally, blog search engine Technorati.com tracks 55 million blogs worldwide applying data mining technology to identify patterns (Salzer, 2007).Statistical tools will be more powerful and easier to use, thus facilitating more widespread application of predictive analytics. Graphical interfaces with software have made data mining and predictive analytics much more accessible and user-friendly. At the same time, most universities have upped their requirements in statistics and data analysis. The combination of more accessible software and more individuals with advanced analytical training, along with the pressure for more accurate decisions, will drive the spread of predictive analytics.Many developments will lower the cost per contact of advertising and improve customer service. Hardware and software improvements will enable marketers to more effectively and efficiently identify and target customers, thus lowering costs. The major obstacle will be the upfront cost of acquiring and implementing the technology and hiring qualified data analysts. But many companies, particularly medium to larger ones, can afford the investment. As companies learn to use this new technology to identify and target customers, they can match customer needs better in product and service development, and communicate more effectively with targeted segments, spending media budgets in a way that reduces wasted dollars and enhances customer experiences. This process will be further enhanced because customers will be in a much better position to provide feedback on how to improve products and services.Companies need to consider customers' reactions to these technologies as they impact marketing, and not just the cost savings. Not all market segments react favorably to innovative technologies, particularly technology solutions driven more by cost savings than relationship building. As an example, voice mail has enabled most firms to save substantial amounts of money answering their phones, but has created substantial frustration among customers having to deal with multiple levels of voice mail, wait times in actually talking to a customer service representative, and outsourcing of phone answering to low-cost countries where the native tongue is different from the caller, thus causing communication difficulties. Another area then must be resolved is the privacy issue. Data collection and storage technology is advancing faster than laws and regulations to govern its use. Many individuals consider the use of their data as an invasion of their privacy. On the other hand, when the data are used properly is provides many benefits. Organizations and individuals need to find a reasonable compromise regarding which information can be used and how.Future applications will be global and real time. The internet has facilitated not only global trade, but quick and easy collection and sharing of information. Manufacturers and service companies throughout the world are gathering more information, examining it using more sophisticated analytical techniques, and using the knowledge gained to make better decisions and thereby create a truly globally competitive market.Demand for data analysts will increase as will the need for students to learn data analysis methods. The foundation of data mining and predictive analytics is statistics and mathematics. In the past many students have avoided course work that included quantitative and statistical methods. This has been particularly true in the USA and Europe. As more organizations begin using these techniques the need for individuals with advanced training in this field will increase dramatically.Scholarly researchers will need to improve their quantitative skills. But this will not diminish the role of qualitative skills. In fact, successful application of quantitative techniques will be based upon improved qualitative research. Academic and industry researchers will need to understand and apply the most rigorous scientific methods to ensure the reliability and validity of their approaches, and achieve the predictive accuracy necessary to be globally competitive. By doing so, the large amounts of information available can be used to create knowledge instead of information overload.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of predictive analytics, summarize how it is impacting knowledge creation in marketing, and suggest future developments in marketing and predictive analytics for both organizations and researchers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Survival in a knowledge-based economy is derived from the ability to convert information to knowledge. To do so, researchers and managers increasingly are relying on the field of predictive analytics. Data mining identifies and confirms relationships between explanatory and criterion variables. Predictive analytics uses confirmed relationships between variables to predict future outcomes. The predictions are most often values suggesting the likelihood a particular behavior or event will take place in the future.\nFindings: - Data mining and predictive analytics are increasingly popular because of the substantial contributions they can make in converting information to knowledge. Marketing is among the most frequent applications of the techniques, and whether you think about product development, advertising, distribution and retailing, or marketing research and business intelligence, data mining and predictive analytics increasingly are being applied.\nOriginality/value: - In the future, we can expect predictive analytics to increasingly be applied to databases in all fields and revolutionize the ability to identify, understand and predict future developments, data analysts will increasingly rely on mixed-data models that examine both structured (numbers)and unstructured (text and images) data, statistical tools will be more powerful and easier to use, future applications will be global and real time, demand for data analysts will increase as will the need for students to learn data analysis methods, and scholarly researchers will need to improve their quantitative skills so the large amounts of information available can be used to create knowledge instead of information overload.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The impact of Mad Money recommendations during bull and bear markets	[ "Herding", "Overreaction", "Market efficiency", "Event study", "Prospect theory" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: He's smart enough to know what he's doing. \"Mad Money\" delivers a very dangerous message - that individual investors can beat the market with momentum-driven, high-octane trading strategies (David Swenson, Yale University Endowment Fund Manager).\n1. Introduction: This study is not intended to scrutinize the Mad Hatter behind the Mad Money machine. Jim Cramer's show, which airs on CNBC weekdays at 6:00 p.m. since 2005, is intended to educate the casual investor through the application of fundamental and technical market analysis. He seeks to entertain, through elaborate sounds, voices, and a signature \"Booyah\" catch phrase, but most of all to make viewers money, for \"there's always a bull market somewhere\" and Cramer's promise is to find it for his audience. Jim Cramer's performance as a stock picker is not the focus of this study. For starters, he plays with an open hand. His picks can be seen five days prior to their execution and must be held for at least 30 days. His charitable trust portfolio can be viewed via Actions AlertPlus at www.thestreet.com. Rather, this study aims to decipher investor behavioral patterns while controlling for market cycles. In other words, what do market reactions following his recommendations indicate about investor psychology?\n2. Related literature: The notion that markets are efficient has been a point of controversy since Eugene Fama proposed the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) in the mid-1960s. The semi-strong form of the EMH assumes that public information of any kind, in this case analyst equity recommendations, is promptly and correctly factored into the share price, without any opportunity for an investor to earn an abnormal return (Fama, 1970). Malkiel's (1975) \"random-walk\" proposition supports the theoretical basis of EMH. Asset prices are said to follow no pattern at all, with all pricing information being immediately reflected. Skeptics include Grossman and Stiglitz (1980) who contend share prices cannot accurately reflect all available data, or else information gatherers would not have profitable opportunities.\n3. Hypotheses: Investor reaction to analyst recommendations in different market conditions can help us investigate the extent to which behavioral biases drive investment choices. Our primary research questions are:\n4. Data and research design: Firm-level return and market proxy data are gathered from the Research Insight Global Vantage database from 2004 to 2010. We use a sample of buy and sell recommendations from MadMoneyRecap.com from July 28, 2005 through February 9, 2009[1]. The 3.5-year time period is the most recent and comprehensive set of Mad Money recommendations that has been tested to date. Other studies including Bolster and Trahan (2009), and Engelberg et al. (2012) use a combination of YourMoneyWatch.com\n5. Results: We use both a three-factor Fama and French (1993) model and a four-factor model that incorporates Carhart's (1997) momentum factor to estimate expected returns. The results are qualitatively similar, so we report the four-factor model results below. Furthermore, the rank test (Corrado, 1989) and the transformed normal test statistic also produce similar results, so we report the T1 statistics below.\n6. Conclusions: This study investigates behavioral finance implications associated with the impact of Mad Money recommendations on share prices in bull and bear markets. Consistent with prior studies, our findings suggest that Cramer recommends stocks that exhibit positive momentum. After controlling for momentum using the Carhart (1997) momentum factor, abnormal returns following Cramer's announcements suggest that investors may be exhibiting herding and driving stock returns higher on the day following a buy recommendation. We find no evidence that Cramer issues sell recommendations on stocks that experience negative momentum. However, we find negative abnormal returns in the days following sell recommendations, on average, indicating investor herding in response to Cramer's sell recommendations. Furthermore, we find some continued negative abnormal return suggesting that prices underreact to the initial information and drift downwards.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine semi-strong market efficiency by observing the behavioral finance implications of Jim Cramer's recommendations in bull vs bear markets. The authors extend the literature by analyzing investor reaction through the lenses of prospect theory, overreaction, and herding.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors test for abnormal returns in response to Mad Money buy and sell recommendations. The authors use a sample of buy and sell recommendations from MadMoneyRecap.com from July 28, 2005 through February 9, 2009. The 3.5-year time period is the most recent and comprehensive set of Mad Money recommendations that has been tested to date.\nFindings: The results indicate market inefficiency at the semi-strong level. Furthermore, the findings highlight the loss aversion tendencies of investors in regards to prospect theory of Kahneman and Tversky (1979) as well as the disposition effect of Shefrin and Statman (1985). Evidence also exists consistent with the herding and overreaction hypotheses.\nPractical implications: The evidence suggests contrarian behavior in which investors respond positively to good news in bad times - perhaps, in effort to stay the course and at least break even. This behavior may suggest that losers tend to hold on to losses in hopes of recouping them. Thus, positive information in bad times could further persuade market participants to hang on to or buy more of losers, while also persuading non-shareholders to buy in as well.\nOriginality/value: Though other studies including Kenny and Johnson (2010) have estimated abnormal returns in response to analyst recommendations, to the knowledge, none has examined behavioral implications of investor reaction to buy and sell recommendations in both bull and bear markets. Furthermore, the study captures a longer bull and bear market and covers two definitions of such markets.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Implementing race equality within the procurement process in Wales: Implications for social landlords and construction contractors and consultants	[ "Procurement", "Construction industry", "Equal opportunities", "Race relations", "Housing", "Wales" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the UK the Race relations Act 1976 outlaws racial discrimination in a number of areas including: employment and training, the provision of goods, facilities and services, education and housing. The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 (RRAA) amended the 1976 act to place a duty on public authorities to promote race equality (National Assembly for Wales, 2002).This means that public authorities must:* eliminate unlawful racial discrimination;* promote equal opportunities; and* encourage good race relations.The introduction of the RRAA was prompted by the findings of the Macpherson Report (Macpherson, 1999) and substantially altered the race relations legislative landscape by introducing a positive, proactive legal obligation to promote race equality.Public authorities must promote racial equality and make its promotion a non-negotiable part of their decision-making process and actions. The Race Relations Act is relevant to the procurement of goods, works and services in two distinct ways:1. How public authorities approach procurement as one of their functions.2. How public authorities deal with a particular contracts.The Race Relations Act makes it unlawful for a local authority to discriminate on racial grounds in carrying out procurement. Section 71 states that public authorities must not only avoid discrimination, but should consider the positive ways in which procurement can help them meet their duty (National Assembly for Wales, 2003).Public authorities can ask potential contractors and consultants for information relating to their workforce and consider the responses to them. Alternatively, they may include in a draft contract or draft tender contract, terms or provisions relating to workforce matters and consider the responses to them if these are reasonably necessary to ensure compliance with the Race Relations Act. Where a public authority's function is carried out by an external supplier on its behalf, the public authority remains responsible for meeting the duty. This means that contractors do not have the same legal responsibility to promote race equality as the contracting body. Therefore, public authorities have to build relevant race equality considerations into the procurement process to ensure that all their functions meet the requirements of the Race Relations Act, regardless of who is carrying them out (Commission for Racial Equality, 2003).For contractors and consultants this means that public authorities may ask them questions during the procurement process relating to whether or not they have an equal opportunities policy and/or a race equality policy. The public authority could enquire whether there have been any claims of race discrimination brought against the organisation and, if so, the number of cases where a finding of race discrimination was made against the organisation. The questions may ask the organisation the number of minority ethnic people employed in the organisation, whether race equality training is provided to staff, including managers, and whether recruitment and selection is undertaken with a view to promoting race equality and eliminating racial discrimination. Supporting documentation could include examples of equal opportunities and/or race equality policies, staff handbooks, recruitment literature and data on training (Commission for Racial Equality, 2003).Housing associations are not classed as public authorities under the RRAA. However, in Wales the Welsh Assembly Government aims to ensure that the aims of the Act are passed on to housing associations through their BME Housing Action Plan for Wales (National Assembly for Wales, 2003).\nBME housing strategy and BME housing action plan for Wales: In April 2001, the Welsh Assembly Government developed, consulted upon and published its black and minority ethnic (BME) housing strategy which provided a strategic framework to assist the Welsh Assembly Government and social landlords[1] identify and meet the housing needs of BME people in Wales. The strategy also provided a framework to enable social landlords in Wales meet their obligations under race and housing legislation (National Assembly for Wales, 2001).In 2002, the Welsh Assembly Government published its BME housing action plan for Wales to take the national BME housing strategy forward. The action plan requires all local authorities and housing associations to develop policies, practices and procedures that take account of the needs of BME people in their localities. Although not classed as main public authorities under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, the Welsh Assembly Government aims to ensure that the aims of the act are passed on to housing associations through the BME housing action plan for Wales (National Assembly for Wales, 2002).The action plan highlights a number of issues that local authorities and housing associations should act upon relating to the procurement process. Section 10 of the action plan: Contractors and Consultants, states that the main objective is to increase the role of BME contractors and consultants in providing services to the social housing sector and to raise commitment to race equality among all contractors and consultants. The target outcomes for this is that contractors and consultants, engaged by social landlords in Wales, more closely reflect the BME composition of the communities they operate in, both in terms of BME-led contractors and consultants and people employed in the industry (National Assembly for Wales, 2002).\nMethodology: Research was carried out between April 2004 and September 2005. Data were collected from social landlords in Wales, main construction contractors and consultants[2] from England and Wales and Wales based BME construction contractors and consultants. In this paper the methodology and results discussed relate to focus groups/consultations with social landlords in Wales and postal questionnaires and telephone interviews with main construction contractors and consultants.\nSocial landlord data collection methods: This paper reports results of qualitative data collected through meeting/focus group consultation. One focus group was held in South Wales with representatives from nine housing associations and one local authority. Data were also gathered at a meeting of the North Wales registered social landlord equality partnership. This included representatives from a further four housing associations. Information obtained from social landlords represented in the North Wales meeting has been combined with focus group data.General contractor and consultant issues facing social landlords in Wales; specific issues relating to BME contractors and consultants and areas where further assistance was required were explored.\nMain contractor data collection methods: A total of 39 Social landlords across Wales (12:27 local authorities; and 27:33 main housing associations) provided contact details of construction contractors and consultants on approved lists. Lists contained the contact details of 400 construction related contractors and consultants. All listed companies were contacted and 72 companies returned a postal questionnaire. Ten of these organisations also participated in telephone interviews.\nResearch findings - Postal questionnaires, main construction contractors and consultants: The following presents an overview of the main findings from the data collected from postal questionnaires with construction contractors and consultants.General characteristics\nResearch findings - telephone interviews, main construction contractors and consultants: Telephone interviews were undertaken with 10 (14 per cent) of the main construction contractors and consultants who returned postal questionnaires. Interviews aimed to further explore topics raised within questionnaires.Findings from telephone interviews, whilst largely consistent with the questionnaire responses received from main contractors and consultants, suggested that the extent to which procedures/policies were implemented in practice may warrant further investigation. Although many organisations stated that they had a range of equality related policies, it was outside the scope of the research to investigate their implementation or to what extent these documents actually impacted on the practices of these organisations.The general findings, in relation to the main themes of the results of analysis of telephone interviews with main construction contractors and consultants are presented and discussed below.Reasons for developing and implementing equality policies\nResearch findings - social landlords: The following presents an overview of some of the main findings from the focus group/consultations with social landlords in Wales.General shortage of construction contractors and consultants\nConclusion and discussion: It was evident from all aspects of the research that the \"old boys\" network' and \"word of mouth\" remains prevalent as the main key source of recruitment and contract sourcing within the construction industry in Wales. Key findings from the research are discussed below.Compliance and potential tokenism\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The UK Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 places a statutory duty on all public authorities to promote race equality throughout all their functions. The purpose of this paper is to discuss steps being taken by social landlords in Wales and contractors and consultants to promote race equality within the construction procurement process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The principle methods of data collection were focus groups with social landlords and postal questionnaires and semi structured telephone interviews with construction contractors and consultants.\nFindings: - Little action is being taken by social landlords in Wales to promote race equality within the construction procurement process. Furthermore, construction contractors and consultants that undertake work on behalf of social landlords are doing little to ensure race equality within their own organisations.\nResearch limitations/implications: - A relatively small sample of construction contractors and consultants took part in the research.\nPractical implications: - In order to meet their obligations under current legislation social landlords need to ensure that they promote race equality within the procurement process. Construction companies including maintenance and minor works contractors that aspire to be engaged by social landlords will need to demonstrate that they are committed to race equality and its implementation and have the appropriate policies and procedures in place to ensure this.\nOriginality/value: - This research is the first to evaluate the procurement practices of social landlords in Wales and how these practices may impact on race equality within the procurement process. The research also examined the steps being taken to promote equality by construction contractors and consultants operating within the social housing sector in Wales.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An application of the modulus maxima distribution in machinery condition monitoring	[ "Condition monitoring", "Failure (mechanical)", "Vibration measurement", "Preventive maintenance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Machinery condition monitoring has attracted increasing interest in recent years, due to the need to reduce the amount of down time in the production lines and to reduce the chances of serious damages and losses caused by failures. Effective condition monitoring systems and schemes would be useful in the early detection of potentially catastrophic faults, minimizing unnecessary losses in manufacturing industry. In addition, they allow for implementation of condition-based maintenance, and significant savings can be achieved by scheduling maintenance activities until convenient or necessary. Generally, a simple condition monitoring system is approached from a pattern classification perspective. It can be divided into three general tasks: data processing, feature extraction, and condition classification. The most common family of monitoring methods is based on vibration measurements, which can provide comprehensive information of machinery operating status. Usually, the vibration signals produced by defective components are of a non-stationary and transitory nature. In this case, detection of localized transients becomes a crucial step in the selection of a signal processing method. A variety of techniques for processing vibration signals have been proposed and have proved to be effective in condition monitoring and fault diagnostics of machinery. By employing appropriate techniques, it is feasible to detect changes in vibration signals caused by defective components and confirm the status of the machinery.Time-frequency analysis, such as the short-time Fourier transform (STFT), has been widely utilized in signal processing in the past decades. However, its usefulness is limited due to its fixed time-frequency resolution. On the other hand, Cohen's class time-frequency distributions like Wigner-Ville and Choi-Williams distributions suffer from the existence of crossing terms that are produced by interactions between different signal components. Wavelet transform method is particularly suitable for analyzing transient and non-stationary signals due to its high time resolution in the high-frequency band and high-frequency resolution in the low-frequency band. This allows more accurate description of localized signal components. So far, most of the research related to wavelet transform has focused on improving time and frequency resolutions under certain situations and summaries of them can be found in a recent review (Peng and Chu, 2004). A major concern in machinery condition monitoring is to capture the fault-induced transients in the vibration measurements, which are associated with the singularities in the signal. The idea of this method comes from singularity detection and processing with wavelets (Mallat and Hwang, 1992; Mallat, 1999). Recent literature shows that it is a novel and applicable technique in many fields. For instance, Khalil and Bayoumi (2000) used it to recognize 2D objects, which are subject to orientation, location, and scale transformations. In addition, it has also been proved useful to analyze financial data (Struzik, 2001) where transients may represent interesting phenomena such as market crashes.Singularity analysis has also been applied in condition monitoring. Peng et al. (2002) investigated a novel approach for the identification of the shaft center orbits based on wavelet modulus maxima. The wavelet modulus is the absolute value of the wavelet transform. Sun and Tang (2002) applied singularity analysis through the continuous wavelet transform to bearing defect diagnosis. Results showed that through identifying the ridges in the wavelet transform modulus, it is possible to capture the time location of fault-related signatures in the bearing vibration signals. Robertson et al. (2003) proposed singularity detection for structural health monitoring using Holder exponent. The Holder exponent, which is also called Lipschitz exponent, is a measure of the degree to which a signal is differentiable and is a feature that is sensitive to the presence of damage. In this paper, we extend singularity analysis with wavelet modulus maxima by proposing modulus maxima distribution (MMD), which can characterize modulus maxima representation and detect the presence of singularities. Further, we consider an EWMA statistic derived from MMD, which can provide a quantitative description of machine operating status and determine the degree of damage that exists. These features can be utilized as inputs in condition classification systems.The structure of the paper is as follows. In the section signal decomposition and singularity analysis, we concentrate on the decomposition of vibration signals and singularity analysis with wavelet transform. In the section modulus maxima distribution, we define MMD and use the distribution to derive EWMA statistic representing machine fault growth. The section experimental results will further investigate and validate this model using several sets of gearbox vibration data provided by the applied research laboratory (ARL) at Pennsylvania State University. The section conclusion contains conclusions of the research presented in this paper.\nSignal decomposition and singularity analysis: Decomposition with time-domain synchronous average\nModulus maxima distribution: Definition of modulus maxima distribution\nExperimental results: A robust FGP should not only be sensitive to the occurrence of incipient failures so as to prevent catastrophic losses, but also be load-independent to avoid unnecessary false alarm. In this section, we will evaluate the performance of EWMA statistic FGP2 using vibration data provided by the ARL at Pennsylvania State University on two test runs of single reduction helical gearboxes. The test rig is in a brand-new state at the beginning of each experiment and runs until gear tooth failure. Thus it provides full lifetime vibration data for our study. Here we use file number as the time index because it is consistent with the progression of the test run and it is a consecutive integer series compared to time stamp provided by ARL. The test rig starts at 100 percent nominal workload (condition #1) and after some time, it jumps to 200 or 300 percent (condition #2) workload to speed up experiment. We can utilize this characteristic to test load-independent feature of proposed FGP and make a comparison with the simple FGP1 and the one proposed by Miller (1999) (FGP3).Case 1: Test run 10\nConclusion: In this paper, we have reviewed several signal processing techniques, such as signal decomposition, wavelet transform and modulus maxima and discussed their effectiveness for monitoring and detection of machinery condition. We proposed MMD to extract important information from wavelet modulus maxima and explored its application in gearbox fault detection. An efficient FGP which gives a quantitative description of machinery health status has been proposed and validated using real vibration data. A comparison with the other two previously defined FGPs indicates better performance of the FGP proposed in this paper, namely load independence, correct identification of failure, and less fluctuation. The future work will focus on the utilization of the MMD for condition classification.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To investigate wavelet modulus maxima distribution (MMD) in machinery condition monitoring and extract a parameter that can give a quantitative description of machinery-operating status.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Signal decomposition technique is applied to extract gear motion signal and then wavelet transform modulus maxima are utilized to define fault growth parameter (FGP).\nFindings: - MMD were proposed and the distribution used to derive an EWMA statistic representing machinery fault growth. A comparison with other research works indicates better performance of this parameter.\nPractical implications: - This paper presents an innovative scheme for the machinery condition monitoring, on the basis of wavelet modulus maxima representation. The definition of MMD can be utilized to derive a parameter that describes the operating status of machinery. This parameter is load-independent so that it demonstrates better performance when compared with other research works. Further, the MMD may be treated as input of condition classification system in the future work.\nOriginality/value: - The idea for this paper stems from wavelet modulus maxima representation, whilst the application in vibration signal analysis is new. It was found that, by applying this approach, the occurrence of failure is correctly identified and the proposed EWMA FGP is independent of the load applied, which is a very important property in machinery condition monitoring and fault detection.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Antecedents and outcomes of marketing innovation: An empirical analysis in the hotel industry	[ "Marketing", "Innovation", "Hotel industry", "Knowledge management", "Performance measures" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The innovation capability has become a key competitive factor for tourism organizations (Brooker et al., 2012; Martinez-Ros and Orfila-Sintes, 2012; Rodgers, 2008). The innovative challenge for these companies should focus not only on introducing new services (product innovation) or new ways to offer these services (process innovation), but also on introducing significant changes in the sales methods (marketing innovation). Technological advances have drastically modified the way companies distribute their tourism products on the market, allowing them to reduce their dependence on intermediaries (Buhalis and Licata, 2002). However, the intermediary organizations have developed a virtuous cycle where interaction with consumers favors the accumulation of knowledge, which materializes in a better integration of contents, improving the firm's trust and reputation and, therefore, the interaction (Stamboulis and Skayannis, 2003). Consequently, the accumulation of knowledge can be a key factor that allows tourism companies to successfully develop their own sales strategies.\nTheoretical framework and research hypotheses: Perspectives from the literature on innovation\nMethodology: Sample\nAnalyses and results: This paper follows the SEM approach to test the proposed hypotheses. The AMOS 22 statistical software was used, and the maximum likelihood estimation method was used. The SEM technique makes it possible to estimate multiple dependence relationships, represent concepts that are not observed in these relationships and, in addition, take the mean error into account in the estimation process (Hair et al., 2008). This paper followed the two-stage procedure recommended by Anderson and Gerbing (1988). In the first phase, after performing exploratory factorial analysis, the measurement model was calculated using confirmatory factorial analysis to test the goodness-of-fit of the scales. All of the measurement scales present adequate psychometric properties (Appendix). Three indicators were used to evaluate its reliability. The Cronbach's alpha values are superior to 0.87 in all cases, the composite reliability shows values above 0.84 and the average variance extracted (AVE) presents values above 0.70 on all the variables. Therefore, the three indicators show values above the minimums recommended for their acceptance. Additionally, all of the standardized estimators of each variable on their respective indicators are statistically significant, positive and above 0.65, suggesting the convergent validity of the scales. Likewise, the discriminant validity of all the model's variables was accepted, given that the AVE of each variable was superior to the square of the correlation between them, as Table II shows.\nConclusions: The research on innovation in the hospitality sector has mainly focused on product and process innovation, while paying less attention to marketing innovation. This paper aims to fill this gap by presenting empirical results about the antecedents and outcomes of marketing innovation in hotel firms. The research shows that both employees' knowledge and declarative-type organizational knowledge are antecedents of the learning capability. To the degree that the learning capability represents a skill based on knowledge (Camison and Villar-Lopez, 2011), it is logical to assume that it would be enhanced by both individuals' knowledge and collective knowledge.\nTheoretical implications: From a theoretical point of view, this study shows that both knowledge resources and learning capability play an important role in achieving marketing innovation and financial performance in hotel firms. Therefore, the intangible resources must be considered when trying to explain the performance of companies in the sector. There is little evidence about the role these variables play in the introduction of innovations, and specifically marketing innovations, in the hospitality industry. Thus, this study sheds light on knowledge resources that favor the introduction of marketing innovation in hotel firms. First, this study finds that, particularly in the hospitality sector, both individual and collective knowledge favor the learning capability of hotel firms. These results corroborate the evidence from other industrial sectors showing that knowledge-based resources favor organizations' learning. Second, the paper contributes to the literature by exploring the mediator role played by learning capability in the relationship between knowledge resources and organizational outcomes, measured in terms of marketing innovation and financial performance. Third, this study advances the knowledge about organizational learning by revealing the important role of the learning capability in achieving organizational outcomes. The model also contributes to the limited literature by supporting the possibility that companies can reach financial performance through the introduction of marketing innovation. In addition, using the Oslo Manual (OECD/Eurostat, 2005) as a reference, the paper develops a scale to measure marketing innovation that presents adequate psychometric properties.\nPractical implications: Regarding the practical implications, the study suggests that hotel firms can reach a higher level of performance if they invest in developing employees' knowledge and fomenting a higher level of collective knowledge related to the business environment in general. Both resources promote learning and, consequently, the firm's capacity to develop marketing innovations and financial performance. However, based on the empirical evidence obtained, managers of marketing innovation should pay more attention to the organization's knowledge, given that the organizational variable seems more effective than the individual variable. In other words, it should be highlighted that to achieve marketing innovation activities, the fundamental key seems to reside in fostering collective knowledge. Moreover, managers must be aware of the relevant role played by the organizational learning capability in achieving both marketing innovations and financial performance.\nLimitations and future research: Although this study has tried to contribute to the existing literature on marketing innovation, it presents some limitations that could be addressed in future studies. The diverse characteristics presented by companies in the hospitality industry make it difficult to generalize the results, which can only be extrapolated to the hospitality industry. Studies in other companies in the tourism sector could shed light on the possible differences or similarities between them. Moreover, marketing innovation is measured according to what is established in the Oslo Manual (OECD/Eurostat, 2005), which introduces this type of innovation for the first time. Future editions of the Manual, as well as new investigations, could improve the measurement scale of this construct. Furthermore, the subjective measure of financial performance represents a limitation, because of the possibility of managerial bias. Finally, knowledge resources can behave as complementary or substitute assets. Therefore, future studies could incorporate these systemic effects.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of knowledge resources on marketing innovation and the way learning capability mediates this relationship. In addition, it evaluates the effect of marketing innovation on the financial performance of hotel firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data from a survey conducted in companies that operate hotel establishments are analyzed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The SEM technique makes it possible to evaluate the multiple and intersected relationships existing among the variables under study.\nFindings: Collective knowledge has a direct influence on marketing innovation and an indirect effect through the learning capability, but the influence of the knowledge held by individuals on marketing innovation is exercised through the learning capability. In turn, both the learning capability and marketing innovation favor the financial performance of hotel firms.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study shows that intangible resources play an important role in achieving marketing innovation and financial performance. Because the hospitality industry is composed of firms with different characteristics, it would be relevant to confirm the model in other hospitality businesses. Future studies could analyze possible links between marketing innovation and other types of performance.\nPractical implications: Hotel firms can reach higher performance levels if they invest in developing the employees' knowledge and, fundamentally, in fomenting a higher level of collective knowledge related to the business environment in general. Likewise, the learning capability plays a relevant role in achieving performance in hotels firms.\nOriginality/value: To date, studies on innovation in the field of hospitality have mainly focused on developing new services, while other types of innovation, such as marketing innovation, have taken a backseat. Likewise, the hospitality literature has paid little attention to knowledge assets. This study deals with both topics, analyzing knowledge resources and the learning capability as possible antecedents of marketing innovation activities. Furthermore, the effect of marketing innovation on the firm's performance is evaluated.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The unemployment rate, unemployment volatility, and crime	[ "Unemployment", "Crimes", "ARCH", "Unemployment volatility" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There are different theories about the socio-economics factors related to the crime. For example, it is well known that the business cycles affect the economic activity, unemployment, consumption patterns, and a variety of other economic and social variables; therefore, it probably might affect the crime rates as well (Bushway et al., 2010).At the same time, another hypothesis links the crime to the unemployment; however, the direction of movement is different. Some author state that the unemployment encourages criminal activities because unemployed people are highly motivated to attempt crime (Phillips, 1991; Howson and Jarrell, 1987); however, Cohen (1981) and Cohen et al. (1980, 1981), among others, argue that during the high unemployment periods the crime rate decreases because more people stay at home and guard their properties. In addition, the wealth of crime targets decreases during these periods which subsidize the motives of people to commit crime. At the same time, researchers argue that the crimes are caused by social changes such as income inequalities, poverty, cultural conflict and the breakdown of institutional control (Miethe et al., 1991).Even though the unemployment rate and poverty rate are commonly used as indicators of economic marginalization[1]; however, as Bausman and Goe (2004) argue these variables cannot capture the complete dynamics of criminal activity. They claim that the employment volatility is another source of economic marginalization that plays a very important role in committing crime. The importance of stability in economic environment has been emphasized in Bausman and Goe (2004). They note:[E]conomic marginalization is not solely based on whether or not individuals can obtain adequate income through legitimate means (i.e. avoid poverty) and gain access to formal employment (i.e. avoid unemployment), but it is also based on whether or not the employment that is accessed is stable over time (p. 668).In addition, not only the unemployment rate but also the duration of unemployment and the changes in the unemployment rate can affect the people's decision in attempting crime (Greenberg, 2001)[2].Considering all these variables we expect to see a positive relationship between the unemployment rate and crime. However, despite the considerable volume of research on this regard, the literature has provided contradictory results; see Chiricos (1987) and Freeman (1999) for a complete review.Imerohorglu et al. (2004) and Cook and Zarkin (1985) tried to examine the relationship between the state of economy, recession or boom, and the crime. Cook and Zarkin (1985) showed that the burglary and robbery are countercyclical but motor-vehicle theft is procyclical. Fallahi and Rodriguez (2007) and Witt et al. (1999) studied the effect of unemployment rate on the crime. Corman and Mocan (2005), Raphael and Winter-Ebmer (2001), Levitt (2001) and Grogger (1998), inter alia, provide evidence in support of a positive relationship, while Britt (1997) has concluded that there is a negative relationship between the unemployment rate and some kinds of crime.This paper contributes to the existing literature by investigating the potential relationship between the unemployment volatility and crime. We argue that besides the unemployment rate and its duration the uncertainty about the future, measured by the conditional variance of the unemployment rate, might have a significant influence on crime. To that end, we use a family of autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH) models to measure the time varying unemployment volatility and then we test the potential long run relationship between the unemployment volatility and four types of crime: burglary, larceny, motor-vehicle theft (auto theft hereafter), and burglary in the USA[3].Based on the results from autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration, introduced by Pesaran and Shin (1995), the unemployment rate and unemployment volatility are cointegrated only with burglary and auto theft. The estimated models for these two types of crime indicate that in the long run the unemployment rate has no effect on burglary and auto theft. However, the unemployment rate has a negative effect on burglary and a positive effect on auto theft in the short run. In addition, we find that the unemployment rate volatility has a negative effect on auto theft regardless of time-span, i.e. short run or long run. Whereas, in the short run the unemployment volatility has a positive effect on burglary. In the long run, however, there is no relationship between burglary and the unemployment volatility[4].The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Second section explains the methodologies. Data and empirical findings are reported in third section, and the final section concludes the paper.\nMethodology: Volatility models\nData and empirical results: We use quarterly data of four crimes types (burglary, larceny, auto-theft, and robbery) for the USA. The data is obtained from the Uniform Crime Reports of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This data consists of 120 observations for the period of 1976:1 to 2004:4, and shows the number of each crime per 100,000 of population. The data for the quarterly unemployment rate is taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Figure 1 shows a description of the crimes and the unemployment rate.The presence of unit root in the unemployment rate and crime types is formally tested by using the feasible point optimal statistic suggested by Elliot et al. (1996). The results indicate that the null hypothesis of a unit root is rejected only for the unemployment rate; that is, the unemployment rate appears to be stationary and all the crime variables are integrated of order 1, I(1).The first step to investigate the relationship between the unemployment volatility and crime is to measure the volatility of the unemployment rate. For this purpose, we use quarterly data for the unemployment rate along with a family of ARCH models. Various ARCH, GARCH, and EGARCH models are estimated for the unemployment rate, assuming that the unemployment rate follows an ARMA model. The selected model based on the SIC and AIC is an EGARCH(1,2) model where the unemployment rate follows ARMA(6,5). The results from this model are reported in Table I. The conditional variance from this model is used as the unemployment volatility.Next, we proceed to test for the long run relationship between crime, unemployment, and unemployment volatility using ARDL approach to cointegration. The selected models based on SIC criteria for burglary, larceny, auto theft, and robbery are (5,4,0), (6,0,0), (5,1,0), and (8,0,0), respectively[6]. The estimations of these models show that the null hypothesis of no cointegration can be rejected only in the models for burglary and auto theft. Therefore, there is not any long run relationship between the unemployment rate, the unemployment volatility, and other types of crime, i.e. larceny and robbery.Table II presents the estimated model for burglary. The error correction term is negative and significant at the 1 percent level of significance[7]. The value of the correction factor is -0.056 meaning that 5.6 percent of any disequilibrium will be corrected quarterly. In addition, the results show that in the short run the unemployment rate has a negative effect (equal to -25.955) on the burglary rate. At the same time, the coefficient of the unemployment volatility is 125.165 which means that an increase in the unemployment volatility will increase the rate of burglary.The estimated long run coefficients are summarized in Table III. According to these results, there is no significant relationship between the burglary, unemployment rate and its volatility in the long run. It must be noted that even though the estimated coefficient of the unemployment volatility is not significant in the conventional levels, the unemployment volatility has a positive effect on the burglary in the border of 12 percent level of significance.The selected model for auto theft is (5,1,0) and the estimated coefficients of this model are reported in Table II. According to this table, the coefficient of error correction term, which measures the speed of adjustment, is 4.2 percent and significant in the level of 5 percent. Moreover, the results show that the unemployment rate has a positive effect on the rate of auto theft and the volatility of the unemployment rate has a negative effect, both in the short and long run. However, the effect of unemployment rate on auto theft is not significant in the long run.The results of diagnostic tests also confirm that the specifications of all models are adequate. These diagnostic tests are: the Lagrange Multiplier (LM) test for serial correlation, the normality test, the ARCH test, and the unit root test of the residuals. In addition, using CUSUM and CUSUM square tests, the stability of the models have been tested and approved.\nConclusion: Quarterly data on four types of crime and unemployment rate are used to investigate how the unemployment rate and its volatility might affect the crime. To that end, the volatility of the unemployment rate is estimated using an EGARCH model. Next, using ARDL approach to cointegration, we checked the existence of cointegration among the variables under study. We find no evidence of cointegration among the unemployment rate and its volatility with larceny and robbery. However, the unemployment rate and its volatility are cointegrated with burglary and auto theft.The results from the estimated models for burglary and auto theft show that in the long run unemployment rate has no significant effect on burglary and auto theft. However, the unemployment rate has a negative effect on burglary and a positive effect on auto theft in the short run. In addition, we find that the unemployment volatility has a negative effect on auto theft regardless of time-span, i.e. short run or long run, which is in agreement with the findings of Cook and Zarkin (1985). As for the burglary, the results show that in the short run the unemployment volatility has a positive effect on burglary. In the long run, however, there is no relationship between burglary and the unemployment volatility.In sum, we provide some evidence that the benefits of creating a stable labor market would be two fold. First, it will provide an environment that makes economic plannings much easier and second, it help to control, at least some types of crime.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The paper aims to study the effect of the unemployment rate and its volatility on crime in the USA. It proposes that not only the unemployment rate, but also its volatility affect the crime.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - First, the volatility of the unemployment rate is calculated using ARCH models. Next, using the results from the first stage the ARDL approach to cointegration is used to examine the link between the unemployment rate and its volatility on the crime.\nFindings: - The cointegrated or long-run relationships are found only for burglary and motor-vehicle theft. The results indicate that the unemployment rate has a significant effect on burglary and motor-vehicle theft only in the short run and the unemployment volatility has a negative effect on motor-vehicle theft regardless of time span. However, it has a positive effect on burglary in the short run and no effect in the long run.\nOriginality/value: - The effect of unemployment rate on crime is documented in the literature. However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that emphasizes the importance of unemployment rate volatility on the crime.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Issues in mobile learning technology	[ "Mobile learning", "Human resources", "Learning and development", "Mobile technology", "Training" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Decide, design, develop and deploy is the standard four-step process relating to technology. The drivers for adopting new technologies in learning include not only the suppliers and the customers (the buyers) but also the consumers (users) - in other words, everyone. Increasingly - since about 2006 - consumers want to use mobile devices for learning and for the less formal \"performance support\". Initially, there can a high cost of ownership (of the latest mobile devices). So the key issue for HR and learning and development (L&D) professionals is how to get the maximum value from, and use of, this technology.\nGrowing the m-learning market: Mobile devices are now readily available - and we all have them. As the demand for, and use of, these things continues to grow, this prompts the growth of m-learning materials.Increasing device technology and functionality, along with the emergence of improved tools and technology for content development lead to increasing demand for mobile devices to deliver learning applications. In turn, this produces an increasingly compelling business proposition for m-learning and leads to its use.Communications, games and entertainment, business services, L&D, commerce and other business transactions, as well as business opportunities are inter-connected with mobile applications in the sense that they both influence and are influenced by these mobile applications.As with any developing delivery technology, the first learning materials delivered via m-learning were re-purposed from \"conventional\" e-learning programmes. In the same way, the first e-learning programs were adapted from instructor-delivered learning materials. Indeed, some early e-learning materials were little more than lecturers' notes being made available on-screen. As the technology develops, content is designed and produced specifically for the \"new\" but now \"established\" technology, taking advantage of its specific characteristics and strengths.These days, it's not about getting content to people but, rather, using mobile devices to answer specific learning, development and/or performance needs. The learning materials' content and its treatment are influenced by what people want and need.\nMoving to mobile learning: The learning industry is in a similar place now to where the broadcast industry was at the birth of television. In those days, those in the broadcast industry discovered that television wasn't \"radio with pictures\". New techniques had to be developed for a new technology. In the same way, some 20 years ago, those in what was then the computer based training industry discovered that merely transferring classroom based training to \"e-learning\" doesn't work.That same principle is at work again, as learning materials developers realize that \"traditional\" e-learning materials need to be modified to be effective when delivered via a mobile device.Add to that the benefits for learners from personalized and contextualized learning - from mobile-delivered programs that can discover where the learners are; what they already know; what they need to know, and then provide the relevant learning materials - and you can see how m-learning can become an ideal medium to get the right information to the right person at the right time.\nIssues for developers of mobile learning: Developers of these materials are recognizing how mobile learning can be tailored to each individual learner and delivered to where that learner wants, as and when the learner needs it. Of course, m-learning need not be delivered via a mobile phone. It could be delivered via devices that are worn - such as spectacles or earpieces. Since mobile learning is being used as a just-in-time, just-enough, anywhere, anytime at point of need performance support aid, its users need different things at different times from the same basic learning material. This provides a challenge for learning developers - not least because they can't be prescriptive about how the learning materials they're developing are structured.Moreover, because of how m-learning is being used, content for m-learning programs needs to focus on essential information. This changes the learning program into more of an electronic performance support system - or even a learning \"app\". If e-learning works well in a formal learning context, then m-learning works equally well in an informal learning one. So there are some basic differences in these delivery mechanisms - which learning materials designers/developers need to take into account.Learning content that's been developed for delivery via a desktop or laptop computer is unlikely to be delivered via a mobile device without some modification - if only because of screen size. So designers/developers must develop a process enabling learning materials to be chunked, that is, made into smaller \"bites\" of learning which can be more easily delivered via a mobile device at the point of need.\nTablet learning: The last year or so has seen the growth in popularity and use of tablet learning (t-learning). This is a further technological step along the evolutionary path from e-learning (learning delivered to a desktop or laptop computer) and its newer arrival, m-learning (learning delivered through a mobile device).Just as m-learning has different parameters to e-learning, so t-learning has different parameters from both of these. In other words, you can't just take e-learning materials and attempt to deliver them via m-learning. If they're to be useful, the learning materials have to be adapted for delivery from \"e\" to \"m\" - and, now, from \"e\" to \"t\" and from \"m\" to \"t\".For one thing, a tablet's screen size is closer to that of a laptop than a mobile phone - so learning materials made for delivery via mobile phones will probably have to be modified for delivery via tablets.Of course, tablets are different from desk- or laptop computers and from mobile phones. They're mobile devices but they may not be as \"personal\" to the user as are mobile phones. This can mean, among other things, that users use them to learn in a different context from the way they would use, say, their mobile phones. In addition, while tablets are more portable than, say, a desktop computer, they're less easily portable than mobile phones. It's difficult to hold one for a long time without some form of support.Besides the technological aspects, there are philosophical and pedagogical issues regarding the relationship between \"e\", \"m\" and \"t-learning\".Tablets are \"mobile devices\" but are they as ubiquitously mobile as mobile phones? Not really - although the story is told that one hospital in Ottawa, Canada, solved the \"tablet mobility\" problem by redesigning their workers' lab coats to include pockets large enough to encompass an iPad.The \"tablet/mobile\" argument seems to hinge on whether the device has a small display screen and, thus, is small enough to be with the user anywhere at any time. This has implications - in terms of screen design - for those who design and develop learning materials for these devices.Furthermore, tablets are more acceptable - to both learners and tutors - in a \"group learning\" context since, unlike mobile phones, they don't have a tendency to ring at odd times. Learners using tablets can't be distracted by, for example, receiving or sending texts on them. In addition, tablet screens have been designed to make it easy to share their displays with others. This helps when it comes to collaborative learning in an office or classroom. Mobile phones, on the other hand, aren't helpful in this respect.While screen size may give the tablet more in common with the desktop and laptop computer than with the mobile phone, the touchscreen capabilities of both the tablet and the phone mean that learning materials designers and developers need to do their work differently when producing materials for delivery via tablets and mobile phones compared with \"traditional\" computers.\nConclusion: \"M-learning\" is an area of learning technology which is developing rapidly. Today's key issues include:How can users and their employers get maximum value from, and use of, this technology?How can learning materials be personalized and contextualized to make them appropriate for the user, whatever her/his need, location and delivery device?*How can the increasingly wide range of mobile devices be best used to deliver both (formal) learning and (informal) performance support materials?\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to outline some key issues in mobile learning technology.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper discusses the impact of mobile learning technology, based on the author's experience in the field.\nFindings: - Decide, design, develop and deploy is the standard four-step process relating to technology. The drivers for adopting new technologies in learning include not only the suppliers and the customers (the buyers) but also the consumers (users) - in other words, everyone. Increasingly - since about 2006 - consumers want to use mobile devices for learning and for the less formal \"performance support\". Initially, there can a high cost of ownership (of the latest mobile devices). So the key issue for HR and learning & development (L&D) professionals is how to get the maximum value from, and use of, this technology.\nOriginality/value: - The paper outlines key issues in mobile learning technology facing HR and L&D professionals, in particular how to get the maximum value from, and use of, this technology.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Convincing consumers to share personal data: double-edged effect of offering money	[ "Control", "Privacy", "Regulatory focus", "Data sharing", "Monetary compensation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Modern firms must leverage unbiased customer information to implement successful interactive marketing strategies and increase their marketing efficiency by offering more targeted and personalized offers (Hofacker et al., 2015).\nTheoretical framework and hypotheses: The key drivers of monetary compensation and control function as motivational tools to influence data sharing. Both perceived data sensitivity and individual regulatory focus should in turn moderate this process. In particular, Regulatory Focus theory considers a contextual evaluation of losses and gains (Martin and Murphy, 2017).\nMethodology: Sample\nStatistical analysis and results: Although data were collected in one survey, common method bias assessed by Harman's single-factor test is not critical. Measured variables are mean-centered and statistical effects are estimated using a hierarchical regression. The assumption of homogeneity of variances for data sharing across the experimental cells is supported (Levene test (3, 197) = 2.08, p = 0.104).\nDiscussion and conclusion: For marketers, collecting data through data brokers is appealing as these third parties can simultaneously protect consumers' interests and privacy while still granting marketers access to personal data. Data brokers are currently extending their business model from B2B to B2C by collecting data directly from consumers. To stimulate data sharing, they offer compensation to consumers in the form of either monetary rewards or more control over data transmission and usage. For example, a consumer can decide to disclose anonymous information to Wibson about location and individual information about social media and Google accounts for $10 a month. In testing the effects of both forms of compensation on data sharing while taking into account the perceived sensitivity of the data, this study assesses the moderating effects of individual approaches (though their regulatory focus) to a situation.\nLimitations and further research: The limitations of this study suggest avenues for further research. The sample is from Europe (specifically, France), which has very strict data protection regulations. Noting the vast differences across countries when it comes to regulations (Gupta et al., 2010) or cultural sensitivity to privacy (Miltgen and Peyrat-Guillard, 2014), the study should be replicated in different countries to determine which boundaries need to be taken into account. Other extensions might investigate a replicable measure for regulatory focus, other variables such as privacy concerns, other measures such as behavioral measures or other methodologies such as experimental tests of data broker recruitment offers. Finally, the results could be extended to other contexts and types of data, beyond an e-commerce context in which the value of the information collected is inherently linked to personalized offers for consumers. In an e-commerce context, the perceived value for the consumer is low, especially compared with the value created in other domains such as health.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how offering control on data usage and offering money can increase willingness to share private information with a data broker.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Personal data are collected for internet users with a Web questionnaire. In an experimental framework, compensations control money are manipulated and consumers' data sharing is explained by sensitivity and regulatory focus.\nFindings: Offering control increases willingness to disclose personal data, even sensitive one, but the effect is not moderated by regulatory focus. Offering monetary compensation has a negative, but small, effect on willingness to share personal data, and the effect is moderated by regulatory focus.\nOriginality/value: Offering a large amount of money is a double-edged offer, as it creates a signal that increases potential negative effect of disclosing personal data to unknown third party.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
UK, Russia, Kazakhstan and Cyprus governance compared	[ "Governance", "Corporate governance", "United Kingdom", "Russia", "Kazakhstan", "Cyprus", "Regulation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In a landmark study of corporate governance, Shleifer and Vishny (1997, p. 737) stated: \"Corporate governance deals with the ways in which suppliers of finance to corporations assure themselves of getting a return on their investment.\" Nowhere is this need for assurance of a return on investment more relevant than in the increasingly risky world of global financing flows behind the investment in new markets of the former Soviet Union states like Russia and Kazakhstan, and in smaller offshore markets like Cyprus, as also pointed out by Boycko et al. (1995).Consequently investors pay greater attention to corporate governance as a stand-alone risk factor when they consider the location of an investment. The 2008 financial crises and the numerous corporate scandals in the recent past (e.g. Enron, Tyco, Xerox, Maxwell, BCCI and Parmalat) have emphasized the need investors have for transparency in financial transactions, ability to control corporations, and financial market integrity (Jesover and Kirkpatrick, 2005; Zattoni and Cuomo, 2008; Independent, 2009). In short, effective corporate governance.One of the major incentives for improving corporate governance is an easier access to a broader range of investors and international capital markets. Kaplan and Nagel (2004) consider a sophisticated corporate governance system essential in a complex capitalistic economy to guarantee that capital funds the best ideas. Furthermore, Standard & Poor's (2004) found that investors regard corporate governance practices to be crucial when making investment decisions and often put corporate governance on a par with financial results when assessing investments. Moreover, the findings indicated that investors may pay more for shares when they consider the company's corporate governance standards to be high (Standard & Poor's, 2004; Lazareva et al., 2009). Although those views are not without their critics (Korac-Kakabadse et al., 2001; Bokov and Vernikov, 2008) and to some degree the findings are equivocal (Bruno and Claessens, 2010), they lead us to suggest that next to general macroeconomic evaluations, an investor is willing to pay a premium for shares of a well governed company because the risk of the investment is lower compared to a company with a low corporate governance performance. Trust in the corporate governance standards in the country where the company is based is a vital prerequisite for this premium to materialize.The purpose of this project is to analyze the corporate governance standards in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Cyprus, and compare and contrast those to the corporate governance standards in the United Kingdom, which were set as a benchmark. The expected outcome is the identification of differences or gaps between the UK's corporate governance standard and of the named countries, revealing specific areas where improvements should be made in order to align practices towards the UK standards. Therefore, this article provides an investor with a tool, which can be used during the investment decision-making process to evaluate the risk regarding corporate governance standards, which may have a significant weight in the final investment decision taken by an investor. Moreover the article provides an indication to policy makers of the necessary adjustments needed for corporate governance standards in the respective countries, and also provides a strategic tool for investors to use when assessing the attractiveness of a country based on the corporate governance standards criterion.The article develops as follows: first is a description of the main sections of the OECD principles of corporate governance; second is an overview of corporate governance in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Cyprus; third is the description of the methodology used for the study, fourth the results are discussed, and finally conclusions are drawn.\nOECD Principles of Corporate Governance: The OECD Principles of Corporate Governance are a number of corporate governance standards, which were developed by the OECD in co-operation with governments, international organizations, and businesses. According to the OECD (2004) the Principles are intended to be used by policy makers for self-assessments and by other stakeholders such as: researchers, investors, analysts, and consultants. \"The Principles generally represent a common basis that OECD member countries consider essential for the development of good governance practices.\" (OECD, 2004, p. 11). The framework contains the following six principles, which were released in May 1999 and revised in 2004:1. Ensuring the Basis for an Effective Corporate Governance Framework.2. The Rights of Shareholders and Key Ownership Functions.3. The Equitable Treatment of Shareholders.4. The Role of Stakeholders in Corporate Governance.5. Disclosure and Transparency.6. The Responsibilities of the Board.Jesover and Kirkpatrick (2005) provide a good overview and discussion of the merits of the OECD Principles and the full text and their explanation can be seen on the website: www.oecd.org/daf/corporate/principles/. The following section provides an overview of corporate governance in the UK, Russia, Cyprus, and Kazakhstan.\nOverview of corporate governance in UK, Russia, Cyprus, and Kazakhstan: This section provides an overview of the corporate governance development in the UK, Russia, Cyprus, and Kazakhstan, as well as a brief description of the main features of corporate governance in each country.UK\nMethodology: The article is a qualitative case study of the corporate governance standards of the UK, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Cyprus. Qualitative case studies facilitate the intensive investigation of phenomena as the researcher does an in-depth investigation and employs extensive resources to understand it (Stake, 2005; Saunders et al., 2003; Yin, 2003; Thomas, 1994; Pettigrew, 1992). Qualitative case studies are widely used in social science research (Zelditch, 1962; Filstead, 1970; Bogdan and Taylor, 1975) including in business and economics (Penrose, 1960; Chandler, 1962; Porter, 1990). As stated by Yin (2003, p. 13): \"A case study is an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident\".In the field of corporate governance, qualitative case studies have been used by leading researchers to describe the corporate governance structures and processes in various countries. Porter (1992) analyzed the investment climate and corporate governance in the USA, Raiskhanova (2000) analyzed the corporate governance system in Kazakhstan, McCarthy and Puffer (2002) analyzed the corporate governance standards in Russia and so did Melkumov (2009); Lau et al. (2007) analyzed the corporate governance standards of the Peoples' Republic of China. Hermes et al. (2006) did a multiple-case, qualitative case study of corporate governance standards in the European Union, Chen (2009) compared Russia and PRC, and Petrovic et al. used a qualitative case to investigate the board effectiveness in Serbian joint ventures (Petrovic et al., 2009).Moreover, the case study research method has been applied where researchers have noted it suitable to situations where there is a need for an intensive study of contemporary events and experimental controls and manipulations of independent and dependent variables is not feasible (Benbasat et al., 1987; Easton, 1998; Siggelkow, 2007).The research approach is one of deductive reasoning based on the widely accepted OECD Principles of Corporate Governance established in 1999 and updated in 2004. The corporate governance standards of the UK, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Cyprus were compared against each other along the 118 variables listed in the OECD Principles. Eisenhardt and Graebner (2007) discussed the merit of deductive approach to case study research as an alternative to inductive theory building.Research approach\nResults: The outcome of the analysis shows: an alignment of the Cypriot corporate governance standard of about 92 percent, an alignment of the Russian corporate governance standards of around 75 percent, and an alignment of the Kazakhstan corporate governance standards of about 63 percent compared to the UK Standard. Figure 1 shows the gap analysis of the corporate governance profiles of the four countries.The following sections present the corporate governance profiles of each of the countries studied.Cyprus\nConclusions: The finding of the study lead us to conclude that there is a considerable convergence among the corporate governance systems of the UK, Cyprus, Russia, and that of Kazakhstan, which concurs with the findings of previous researchers suggesting a convergence of corporate governance systems and roles therein (Kakabadse et al., 2009, p. 4; Aguilera and Cuervo-Cazurra, 2009). Moreover the findings suggest that this convergence is towards the Anglo-American system of corporate governance, which is a somewhat different convergence than Hermes et al. (2006, p. 295) found in other central and east European countries, which appeared to be converging to the EU COM-284 standards. Conversely, these empirical findings dispute Yoshikawa and Rasheed's (2009) assertion, based on a literature review, that there is a limited convergence of corporate governance systems. Finally, the findings support, by inductive reasoning, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) assertion that the UK corporate governance system offers benefits over other systems (Financial Reporting Council (FRC), 2006, p. 3; Aguilera and Cuervo-Cazurra, 2009).Investors can expect that the corporate governance systems in Cyprus and Russia are in many ways similar to that of the UK and that of Kazakhstan differs somewhat. Therefore investors are, to a degree, relived from investment risk arising from corporate governance uncertainty in these countries and may not need to charge the related risk premiums on their investment. This view is supported by researchers investigating the performance of firms in the PRC, but Lau et al. (2007) concluded that an Anglo-American corporate governance system implemented in China improved corporate governance effectiveness. Hence it reduced investment risks. However investors must be aware of the potential discrepancy between the similarities in corporate governance systems and the actual implementation to those systems by corporations as researchers have observed (Krambia-Kapardis and Psaros, 2006).Policy makers may take note of the differences in their country's corporate governance system, the need for adaptive actions, and the effects a good corporate governance system has on the valuation of firms in their markets. Recent empirical studies have provided evidence for the positive relationship among firm valuations and good corporate governance system (Lazareva et al., 2009; Black et al., 2006; Durnev and Kim, 2005; Klapper and Love, 2004).As this study provides evidence for the convergence of the corporate governance systems of Cyprus, Russia, and Kazakhstan to the UK, the need for research into the actual implementation of the corporate governance system by firms is and will be a subject of great interest. The limited research on the corporate governance system in Kazakhstan represents a gap in the literature that needs urgent bridging.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the corporate governance standards of Cyprus, Russia, and Kazakhstan to those of the UK to facilitate investment decisions. The paper aims to discover governance gaps creating a potential for alignment to UK standards.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is a qualitative case study of four countries based on the OECD criteria of 118 corporate governance measures.\nFindings: - The findings indicate that the corporate governance standards in Cyprus match 92 per cent of the UK standards, Russian standards match 75 per cent, and Kazakhstan ones 63 per cent. The greatest contrast to the UK standards were for Cyprus in the area of disclosure and transparency category, Russia's was in the area of responsibilities of the board, and Kazakhstan's was highest in the two areas mentioned above and low overall.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper identifies areas of governance that could be aligned to UK standards. Further research is needed to compare the governance standards of the countries studied to international standards other than those of the UK's.\nPractical implications: - The paper provides insight on governance for investors in the three countries and aids effective investment decisions.\nSocial implications: - The paper identifies areas of governance needing regulatory adjustment in the three countries and could influence government and industry policy.\nOriginality/value: - The originality of the paper lies in identifying gaps in governance among the four countries. Thus the paper provides information for investors as to the corporate governance they are likely to experience, and facilitates development in governance regulation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Holding individuals accountable for engaging in harmful health behaviours when managing scarce resources: Yes or not really?	[ "Substance abuse", "Public health", "Clinical governance", "Health policy", "Patient education", "Quantitative research", "Health economics", "Behavioural social or mental health issues" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: European Union (EU) countries face an even increasing demand for healthcare that has been putting pressure on their health budgets. Much of this demand stems from the increase in the number of diseases attributable to lifestyle. These diseases share key modifiable behavioural risk factors (nutrition habits, physical inactivity, obesity, smoking and harmful use of alcohol) (WHO, 2017). The engagement in harmful health behaviours overstates the personal responsibility to become a collective concern towards the economic sustainability of the whole health system. Thus, modern healthcare is, currently, facing an important paradox as scarce medical resources are spent on diseases that to some degree could be avoided through individual lifestyle changes. This situation has raised an ongoing discussion concerning modifying the way of delivery and distribution of healthcare to take care of personal responsibility (Cappelen and Norheim, 2005; Schmidt, 2009; Brown, 2013; Albertsen, 2015; Friesen, 2016; Levy, 2018). Besides this theoretical debate, there is a growing empirical literature on the views of different stakeholder groups in different countries regarding the equitable of treatment of patients differently based on their personal responsibility for the disease. Studies have been performed on the views of the general public (Kloosterboer et al., 2015; Miraldo et al., 2014; Lund et al., 2015; Rogge and Kittel, 2016; Borges and Pinho, 2017). The results, although heterogeneous, still seem to suggest that general public did not penalize all lifestyles in the same way. These studies, however, focused mainly in exploring attitudes concerning the condemnation of a limited number of risk behaviours, namely, illegal drug use, alcohol abuse, smoking and overweight/obesity.\nMethods: This study uses a similar design to a previous study in Portugal (Borges and Pinho, 2017). Our study has two main objectives: explore the opinion of respondents on the relevance of five lifestyles to be used, if needed, in prioritizing patients and to test whether respondents' sociodemographic, health characteristics and level of agreement with general statements concerning the relevance of personal responsibility in healthcare priority setting, influence these decisions.\nQuestionnaire: Data were collected through a self-complete questionnaire made available online by a marketing research company between November 2017 and March 2018. Eligibility criteria specified that participants should be Bulgarian speakers, 18 years of age or older and resident in Bulgaria. The questionnaire was anonymous and was preceded by a sheet explaining the scope of the study and the requested permission to use the data.\nData analysis: Descriptive and inference analyses were performed using STATA (version 15). Logistic regressions were performed to explore the determinants of the likelihood of agreeing with the idea that engaging in risk behaviours (smoking, overeating/unhealthy dieting, heavy drinking, illicit drug use and dangerous driving) implies losing priority in the access to healthcare. Five models where conducted, with the dummy-dependent variable assuming the value of 1, whenever respondents agreed that patients engaged in the risk behaviour (under analyze) deserve a lesser priority. The logistic regressions models were then used to control for respondents: sociodemographics' characteristics (Section 1), self-rated life satisfaction and health-related habits (Section 2) and agreement with general statements relating personal responsibility with healthcare rationing (Section 3). All statistical tests were two-sided and the level of significance was set at 0.05.\nResults: Descriptive analysis\nDiscussion and conclusion: Since resources in health are increasingly scarce, difficult decisions about rationing have to be made. One discussion that emerges among political decision makers concerns the relevance and legitimacy of adopting the principle of personal responsibility for health in managing the health resources. As individual lifestyles threaten the collective welfare, we present a framework of risky behaviours that could be avoided and that contribute to increase health expenditures. The purpose of this exploratory study was to evaluate the sensitivity of Bulgarian citizens (here represented by the sample of participants) for the relevance of personal responsibility for diseases in healthcare priority setting. The descriptive analysis indicates that, although the majority of Bulgarian respondents disagree with the idea that personal responsibility for illness should count in a priority decision, 82.7 per cent agree (partly or completely) with the statement \"My level of health can be affected by my behaviours/lifestyles\". A similar high level of agreement (almost unanimously) with this statement was found elsewhere (Borges and Pinho, 2017). We can only speculate about the reason for this, but it seems to suggest that Bulgarian respondents are aware of the health hazards of some lifestyles but do not understand it to be fair to discriminate people based on their behaviours. In other words, respondents seem to appreciate the central value of western medicine - with respect to patient's autonomy. More research is needed. Even so, these attitudes diverge from the kind of egalitarian substantive principle of justice that supports equalising people's opportunity for lifetime health. According to this view, justice is done if people who choose not to exercise their opportunity for health (for example by leading an unhealthy lifestyle) achieve lower levels of health (LeGrand, 1991). It should be borne in mind that these kinds of normative questions concerning beliefs about statements might have been unclear to the respondents themselves. In fact, when faced with concrete questions, namely, about the types of risk behaviour that should be relevant to prioritize, a wider consensus was reached, among participants, in giving lower priorities to patients that engaged in dangerous driving (excess of speed and/or under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs) and illegal drugs use. One of two participants will consider information about excessive alcohol intake appropriate to priority setting, whereas only two-fifths considered smoking information relevant. The lower penalization of tobacco may be due to the fact that smoking is a socially accepted habit as practically a third of the Bulgarian population smokes. As other international results show, in a recent study, alcohol was also more penalized than tobacco (Pinho, 2016; Borges and Pinho, 2017). Overweight/obesity and/or poor quality nutrition was the lifestyle less condemned by respondents, which are consistent with international findings (Bringedal and Feiring, 2011; Miraldo et al., 2014; Borges and Pinho, 2017). One possible reason for this lower penalization of obesity may lie in the fact that this condition is growing among Bulgarian population.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the views of Bulgarian citizens about the relevance of lifestyles in the management of scarce resources through rationing and explore whether they are associated with participants' characteristics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 322 Bulgarian respondents. Respondents faced a hypothetical rationing scenario where they have to decide whether information about five harmful health behaviours (smoking, excess alcohol consumption, illegal drug use, overeating/poor diet and engaging in dangerous driving (speeding and/or under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs)) should be relevant in priority setting decisions. Descriptive statistics and logistic regressions were performed.\nFindings: The majority of respondents disagree with the idea that personal responsibility for illness should count in priority decisions. Notwithstanding, there seems to be a wider consensus in giving lower priorities to patients that engage in dangerous driving (excess of speed and/or under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs), illegal drugs use and excessive alcohol intake. Overeating/poor quality nutrition was the risky behaviour less condemned by respondents followed by smoking. Respondents' sociodemographic, health and beliefs about rationing criteria had different impact in the penalization of the risk behaviours.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first attempt to awaken attention to the impact that personal responsibility for health may have on intergenerational access to healthcare.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The reciprocal effects of country-of-origin on product evaluation: An empirical examination of four countries	[ "New product development", "Consumer perception", "Country image", "Country of origin" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Recent economic growth in the Asian region has created numerous skilled workers as well as wealthy consumers. Currently, Asian countries are not merely factories but also attractive markets. The Asian region encompasses many heterogeneous countries that contain consumers with different values and preferences. Certainly, this issue is not unique to Asian regions. Firms have to alter their products to fit consumer preferences in any target country or region. For example, some consumers may prefer simple, inexpensive products rather than sophisticated, highly functional products. In addition, consumers often evaluate products based on more ambiguous aspects such as the country-of-origin (COO). Obviously, if other attributes are identical, a car featuring fuel consumption of 50 mpg (miles per gallon) should be preferable to one featuring fuel consumption of 40 mpg. However, the features of a Japanese car that consumers find more attractive than those found in a German car cannot be decisively determined. To address this uncertainty, we refer to COO studies published since the 1960s (Bilkey and Nes, 1982; Peterson and Jolibert, 1995). Consumers maintain certain COO preconceptions that affect their evaluation of products.\n2. Previous studies: 2.1. COO effects\n3. Research design: 3.1. Objective products and countries\n4. Results: 4.1. Estimation results of individual parameters\n5. Discussion: 5.1. Preference and culture\n6. Conclusion: 6.1. Contributions of our study\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the country-of-origin (COO) effect on product evaluation to determine the different effects of COO in Asian nations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors focus on automobiles as the target product category and conduct consumer surveys in three Asian countries - China, Japan, and South Korea - and the USA. Since these four countries are the major global production bases and consumption markets, the authors can examine the reciprocal effects of COO across countries. The authors propose a hierarchical conjoint analysis and estimate parameters. For the attributes of conjoint analysis, the authors incorporate both the COO of products and other functional aspects such as price and fuel consumption to compare their effects on consumer evaluation.\nFindings: The authors find different tendencies in each country's COO effect. Further, the authors discuss the factors affecting consumer evaluation in each country based on the country's culture and general product images.\nOriginality/value: The authors' contributions to the literature are as follows. First, in the research design, the authors incorporate COO information as an attribute of automobiles. This enables us to compare the COO effect with the effects of other functional aspects. The authors find that the COO effect is substantially the same as the effect of other functional attributes. Second, the authors assume a hierarchical structure in the conjoint analysis and discuss the different preferences in each country. This hierarchical structure enables to extract the reciprocal effects of COO across countries.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Exploring the effects of information quality change in road transport operations	[ "Information management", "Road transport", "Process management", "Road transport operations", "Global positioning system", "Information quality", "Process change" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Today different forms of uncertainty impact road transport operations (Sanchez-Rodrigues et al., 2008). Uncertainty in the form of delays, lack of coordination, delivery constraints and variable demand is a common obstacle to delivering superior customer value in this industry (Sanchez-Rodrigues et al., 2010). Practical evidence shows that transport firms lacking high quality information eventually encounter increased costs and unwanted stock holding (Sanchez-Rodrigues et al., 2008). These disturbances are forcing the transport industry to rely heavily on information and communication technology (ICT) to make its operations more efficient and effective (Cetinceviz and Bayindir, 2012).Global positioning system (\"GPS\") technologies are one of the most widely used technologies firms adopt to manage their road transport operations. A reduction of costs and an increased speed of internal operations are some of the most emphasized benefits of GPS use (Mintsis et al., 2004). Yet, the extent of these benefits largely depends on the quality of the information provided to dispatchers (Rishel et al., 2003), such as information about the location and movement of a vehicle, the driving times of a driver, and a driver's break periods (Mintsis et al., 2004).ICT literature discussing GPS use in road transport has previously emphasized the positive contribution of ICT-enabled quality information on decision making and firm performance, particularly when firms operate in highly competitive and uncertain settings (Rishel et al., 2003; Theiss et al., 2005; Coronado Mondragon et al., 2009). However, our understanding of how the use of such information transforms transport operations and generates improvements in organizational performance is limited. In response, we carry out an exploratory comparative case study research of three transport firms that have introduced GPS into their operations. In this study, we focus on assessing changes in transport operations due to the use of the quality information GPS provides and the link between these changes and organizational benefits.In what follows, we first illustrate the role of GPS in road transportation followed by the importance of information quality in transport operations. We then outline the research methodology used in the study, followed by an analysis of the data and answers to our research questions. In the discussion section we explore the implications of our findings and offer several propositions. The paper concludes with avenues for future research.\n2 Conceptual foundations: 2.1 Use of the GPS\n3 Research methodology: Because the area of investigating GPS implementation and use is still in the early stages of research, we adopted an exploratory case study method. We employed a multi-case design that supports a \"replication logic\" where results are more focused than overarching theories and more valid and generalizable than those of single-case studies because the findings are deeply grounded in varied, empirical evidence (Yin, 1994). Applying prescribed methods of a comparative case study (Eisenhardt, 1989), we selected theoretically relevant cases, collected case data, and conducted iterative and inductive analyses.3.1 Research context\n4 Findings: The data analysis revealed that not all of the information quality criteria adopted in our study were subject to change after the introduction of GPS. The most evident changes in information quality relate to transport planning, vehicle routing and transport control (as depicted in Table III). To present our results, we first elaborately explicate the information quality change in transport planning as seen through enhanced accessibility and convenience. We then examine the changes in information quality for vehicle routing. Interestingly, applicability and timeliness were reported to be the prevailing dimensions for each firm. Lastly, across the cases the informants reported accuracy, currency and correctness as information quality criteria of primary concern when controlling the transport process.4.1 Transport planning\n5 Implications for managing transport operations: To move beyond the case findings, we reviewed other research studies for similar concepts, relationships or models (See, 2007; Rishel et al., 2003; Thill, 2000; Theiss et al., 2005). This suggested that our areas of interest had not been previously adequately researched. Our findings provide some interesting understandings of the changes to transport operations following the use of GPS and the link to a firm's benefits.To begin with, the information GPS provides is primarily used in transport operations when planning a transport service. Coronado Mondragon et al. (2009) suggest that information generated online referring to order status, product schedules and sales records facilitates the integrating of major supply chain processes and planning production and logistics services. In our cases, information like the position of the vehicles, traffic bulletins, the level of completion of a planned journey as well as the use and analysis of historical data is available in the specific GPS application installed in the dispatch centers. The application is then integrated with other information systems which dispatch the information to other departments, thereby helping a dispatcher to plan and execute the transport service in the most effective way (Giannopoulos, 2004). We therefore propose:P1. The use of GPS information in transportation facilitates changes in transport planning.In addition, GPS use facilitates changes in vehicle routing which seem to endorse benefits accruing to the firm. GPS generates real-time information about the transport service which is used for resolving real-time vehicle rerouting problems (Li et al., 2009) and enables the generation of vehicle routing plans (Repoussis et al., 2009) and generates transport information that assures efficient real-time logistics (Novoa and Storer, 2009). Our study reveals that a transport firm needs real-time information about a transport service especially when a customer orders an ad hoc transport. The dispatcher then immediately sends the vehicle to the loading place and selects the shortest and least expensive route. We offer the following propositions:P2. The use of GPS information in transportation facilitates changes in vehicle routing.Likewise, the use of information GPS provides is replacing traditional methods involving paper, phone and fax (Giannopoulos, 2004). The constant availability of information GPS offers enables a dispatcher in the transport office to perform the online monitoring of a vehicle. Supporting this evidence, our study revealed that modern transport firms require real-time monitoring enabling interaction with fleet vehicles. This enables a firm to control the transport service at all times, rather than only when the information is passed to the dispatcher by the driver:P3. The use of GPS information in transportation facilitates changes in transport control.Lastly, the changes in the transport operations are closely linked to a firm's benefits. First, GPS enables transport firms to obtain up-to-date and current information about the status of a transport which is later shared with the customer. This shortens the waiting time for the customer. Second, GPS gradually helps attain the high utilization of transport assets, such as vehicles, maintenance personnel and dispatchers. A vehicle is immediately sent to the required destination where the dispatcher is able to select the shortest and least expensive route. Moreover, dispatchers are increasing the productivity by reducing the time spent on the phone with the driver (Rishel et al., 2003). Third, GPS information facilitates the greater satisfaction of the dispatchers and drivers with their working environment. Dispatchers are able to perform their work quicker and with less stress, whereas drivers are not disturbed while driving, taking a break or even sleeping. Finally, the use of GPS information enables cost and time savings by enabling the immediate re-routing of a vehicle to toll-free or less expensive roads, or the avoiding of traffic jams. Our last proposition is therefore:P4. The use of information in transport operations facilitates improvements in customer service, asset utilization, job satisfaction, and time and costs savings.In addition, our findings offer some important strategic insights for transport firms' managers. First, based on the information available from GPS and the identified transport operation needs managers can make more detailed plans for their human and vehicle resources while simultaneously considering the customer's needs. Second, while such decisions were previously largely based on intuition, managers now have a tool to make more sound and relevant fact-based decisions. Third, such information assists managers greatly in their two most challenging tasks, namely setting the pricing policies for their transport services and expanding to new markets.\n6 Conclusion, implications and future work: The existing literature provides an insight into knowledge about information quality in different industries, yet this body of literature does little to inform firms in the transport industry about the change in information quality after introducing GPS. This is particularly important since the competitive advantage of these firms is largely to be found in the extent to and ways in which such information is used. Our work responds to this deficiency, seeking to extend understandings of the changes in transport operations arising from the use of the quality information provided by GPS.While previous literature has emphasized the need to research the benefits of introducing GPS, the role of transport operations in achieving these benefits has not yet been clearly established. For example, the European Commission's Joint Research Center (2005) conducted a study of the potential benefits of GPS implementation in road transport, such as the effects of GPS applications on road transport costs, transport policies and risks. However, the study did not provide any information about how these benefits are achieved. Similarly, customer satisfaction research carried out by FleetMatics (2010), a leading global provider of fleet management solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, reported on its customers' identified benefits due to the newly available transport information derived from implementing a GPS fleet tracking system, but no detailed information was reported about changes in FleetMatics' customers' transport operations leading to these benefits. Another case study research by Michaelides et al. (2010) identified the benefits of using information from GPS vehicle tracking technologies within the context of the transport container industry and emphasized the need to investigate beyond the mere benefits for firms towards areas of actual improvements in transport activities leading to these benefits. While the authors suggest possible enhancements in transport activities (e.g. physical paths of vehicles, monitoring, and planning for agility), they emphasize this should be studied in more detail and beyond the single case study they had undertaken, which they noted as their main research limitation.To address the presented gap in transport operations theory and information use theory we contribute by offering a conceptual framework (Figure 1) that sheds more light on the influence of information quality on transport operations. While existing research mainly deals with the direct influence of GPS-enabled information for transport firms' benefits, we introduce transport operations as the missing element in a more comprehensive explanation of previously hypothesized relationships between information quality improvements and organizational benefits in road transportation. Notably, we find that different information quality criteria (i.e. information accessibility, convenience, applicability, timeliness, accuracy, currency and correctness) affect transport operations activities (i.e. transport service planning, vehicle routing and transport control) in various ways. However, there are different mechanisms for increasing information content quality and information access quality (Popovic et al., 2009), which therefore call to be researched separately.In addition, our findings offer some important strategic insights for managers of transport firms. First, based on information available from GPS and identified transport operation needs managers are able to make more detailed plans for their human and vehicle resources while simultaneously considering their customers' increasingly dynamic needs. Second, while such decisions were previously mostly based on intuition managers now have a tool to make more sound and relevant fact-based decisions. Third, such information assists managers greatly in their two most challenging tasks, namely setting the pricing policies for transport services and expanding to new markets.Yet, a series of possible challenges and limitations needs to be considered. First, our case study suffers the usual limitations of case study research. Although three case studies were conducted, this may not be sufficient to allow the generalization of the findings. While special attention was paid to ensure rigor and validity, further cases are needed to validate and generalize our findings. Next, the firms under investigation were all relatively well organized after having been in the industry for over 20 years. The effects of a change in information quality in road transport operations might differ in more recently established firms that have less structured processes. Further, seeking to learn from firms that have introduced a GPS system, we studied its influence in three small and medium transport firms. In larger firms different kinds of effects would emerge also due to the larger number of stakeholders involved. It should also be noted that the effects were only analyzed after a relatively short time; stronger and different effects might only arise over time.We trust that our propositions will inspire empirical studies and move this field of research forward. However, whether and how our propositions apply to other contexts raises important questions. For researchers, there are exciting new areas for further investigation. We encourage future studies to extend our work to larger firms. Next, while the growing importance of information sharing has been proposed in supply chain contexts (Li and Lin, 2006), exploring possible uses of GPS as an enabler of information sharing calls for more targeted, empirical research. In addition, another direction for future studies lies in clarifying the initial employee resistance arising during the GPS implementation phase. Employee resistance might substantially inhibit the positive organizational effects following GPS use. We hope that this study will spark future attempts to elaborate our findings.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The information system (IS) literature has previously emphasized the positive contribution of IT-enabled quality information on decision making and firm performance, particularly when firms operate in highly competitive and uncertain settings. Yet, our understanding of how such information potentially transforms transport operations and generates improvements in organizational performance is limited. In response, the authors conduct an exploratory comparative case study of three transport firms that have introduced the global positioning system (GPS) in their operations. The purpose of this paper is to focus on assessing changes in transport operations due to the use of the quality information GPS provides and the link between these changes and organizational benefits.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, direct observations and archival documentation in the three transport firms. Applying methods of a comparative case study, the data were analyzed by employing iterative and inductive analyses.\nFindings: - The results identify transport operations as the missing element in a more comprehensive explanation of previously hypothesized relationships between information quality improvements and organizational benefits in road transportation. Notably, it was found that different information quality affects transport operations in various ways. In addition, improved transport operations, namely transport service planning, vehicle routing and transport control, result in improved customer service, enhanced transport asset utilization, reduced transport costs and time, and in increased satisfaction of employees working within the transport process.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper offers a series of propositions that aims to stimulate empirical research and theoretical thinking on this topical subject.\nPractical implications: - The findings offer valuable insights to transport firms, while providing and improving information quality for transport service planning, vehicle routing and transport control that results in organizational benefits linked to customer service, transport asset utilization, costs, and employee satisfaction. For information to have practical value, firms must use it in those transport operations identified as adding value to the firms' performance.\nOriginality/value: - To the best of the authors' knowledge this is an early attempt to inform firms in the transport industry about the information quality change following from GPS use and its implications for transport operations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Does participative decision making affect lecturer performance in higher education?	[ "Participative decision making", "Lecturer performance", "Higher education", "Indonesia", "Performance levels", "Employee participation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Higher education plays its main role in creating expertise and acts as a center of excellence for knowledge creation and developing human resources necessary for a country's development. Higher education is the engine that drives the economy and the vaccination against the worst effects of globalization (Creech, 2000; Brodjonegoro, 2009). Further, higher education affects every area of national development and deserves requisite attention (Chauhan, 2008). Many strategies have been implemented by developing countries such as Indonesia to improve their higher education performance.Job performance is a significant factor affecting organizational performance. In an educational setting, lecturer performance has a strategic role and is the main factor determining student performance and hence university performance. Kingdon and Teal (2003) mentioned that teachers are a central actor in the learning process that takes place in schools. Studying factors affecting lecturer performance in higher educational institutions from different settings is very useful for not only enriching and refining theory but also for developing reasonable recommendations to increase quality of higher educational institutions.Since 1980s, considerable attention was placed on enhancing teacher professionalism primarily through increasing teacher participation in decision making regarding issues affecting teachers' schools and classrooms (Rice and Schneider, 1994). Employee participation has been primarily initiated from the industrial and business domains; but only recently it is evident in schools (Conway, 1980, p. 41).In the USA, teacher participation becomes central to many schools restructuring projects. The term \"restructuring\" suggests fundamental educational change in response to the need to comprehensively redesign schools (Lipman, 1997, pp. 3-4). Dimensions of managing the teaching-learning process developed by Pozo (2006) mentioned that there are many principal components determining successfulness of teaching-learning process, one of them is giving teacher a chance to participate in decision making.Participation in decision making is becoming a controversial issue to find a fit between lecturers and universities' objectives. Such researches have been conducted in developed as well as developing countries but still very limited in Indonesia. Moreover, the previous research shows lack of consistent and conclusive evidence about the impact of participative decision making on teaching performance in higher education. The empirical evidence shows that research in this area is still an equivocal topic. The purpose of this research was to ascertain empirical evidence and gain insights about the impact of participative decision making on lecturer performance in higher education in Indonesia.\nLiterature review: Although job performance is commonly used in business and education fields of studies, its concept is still poorly defined. Different definitions of the concept might be given by different scholars in different fields. For instance, in education, technical engineering and business, we will find different definitions of job performance. Bernardin et al. (1995) defined job performance as the outcomes of work because they provide the strongest linkage to the strategic goals of the organization, customer satisfaction, and economic contributions. Campbell et al. (1970) conceptualized job performance as behavior and it does not have to be directly observable actions of an individual. It can consist of mental production such as answers or decisions.Whatever justification given by the leadership of colleges in Indonesia, with the university rankings in Indonesia started in the order of 78 in Asia-Pacific according to Time magazine, it still could be a reflection of underdevelopment of the higher education quality in Indonesia (Heriyono, 2009). By having such a condition, it would be still very difficult for Indonesian universities to compete internationally with other foreign universities. Heriyono exposed that improving lecturer performance might become a strategic approach for alleviating the educational problems. Therefore, identifying and facilitating factors influencing lecturer performance in higher education has become a paramount priority for Indonesia government.\nLinking participative decision making to lecturer performance: Educators, practitioners, and researchers from various disciplines of knowledge have studied factors affecting performance. One of the prominent factors affecting performance is participative decision-making (Drummond and Reitsch, 1995; Lipman, 1997; Clinton and Hunton, 2001). Increasing level of teacher participation in making decisions and extending their involvement in the overall decision making process make school policy and management more responsive to societal needs (Pashiardis, 1994). Further, Pashiardis (1994) described that teachers can take a greater role in the overall success of the school when they are committed to being active participants in the decision-making process.Participation has an important role not only in the business or industrial sector but also in the educational sector. Participation in school decision making can enhance teachers' commitment, expertise, and effectiveness (Marks and Karen, 1997, p. 246). Lipman (1997, p. 11) asserted that teacher participation was to re-energize schools, unleash teachers' initiative and creativity, and get them to buy into the restructuring agenda. Besides, it has become a key component of recent efforts to restructure and reform schools in Indonesia. Teacher participation in school decision making has been advanced for many reasons (Smylie, 1996, p. 181) including the belief that it will enhance communication among teachers and administrators as well as the quality of educational decision making and quality of teachers' work life.Participation may also enhance teacher's sense of responsibilities, shared culture, and teacher commitment (Lipman, 1997, p. 4). In addition, Lipman stated that teacher participation is related to the implementation of programmatic decisions and creates opportunities for instructional improvement. Smylie (1996) stated that participation would improve teachers' opportunities in acquiring new knowledge and insights. These opportunities can enhance respectively instructional improvement and student outcomes.Mualuko et al. (2009) investigated the extent to which teachers are involved in school decision making process in comparison to their desired extent of participation. They found that teachers desire greater involvement in decision making. They therefore recommended that by involving lecturers in decision making, the quality of decisions and their morale in their performance of duty will be higher. According to the above theoretical background, it is expected that providing lecturers a space for participating in decision making has positive impact on lecturers' performance in teaching, research, publications, public services and managerial involvement activities:H1. Participative decision making is positively related to lecturer performance or in other words the more participative decision making, the better lecturer performance in higher education institutions will be.\nLinking demographic characteristics and lecturer performance: Level of education and work experience are among the most commonly studied characteristics of entrepreneurs and educators. Cursory examination of empirical studies relating to the impact of education and experience on performance suggests that there are contradictory findings. Tremblay et al. (2001) confirmed that class-level variables that positively affect performance are experienced teachers who were comfortable with the curriculum. In their business research, Kennedy and Drennan (1998) asserted that higher education and management experience in large organizations is associated with higher performance. Their arguments centered on the fact that experience improves teaching skills while pupils learn better at the hands of teachers who have taught them continuously over a period of years.Several studies have been conducted, yet there is not a single conclusion regarding gender equality on the job performance. Ackah and Heaton (2003) explored whether the acquisition of a human resource professional qualification has the same impact upon career progression for male and female managers. The findings suggested that the careers of men and women do differ, with men receiving more internal promotions while women were more likely to seek career progression in another organization and to be less successful in terms of earnings. In contrast, Watson (2003) had studied gender-based differences in the financial performance and business growth of small and medium-sized Australian enterprises and had found that female lecturers tend to perform better than male lecturers.In 2008, Adeyemi's study revealed that teachers' teaching experience had a significant impact on students' learning outcomes. Schools having more teachers with teaching experience of five years and above achieved better results than schools having more teachers with less than five years of teaching experiences. Recently, Kadri et al. (2009) found that gender and experience of lecturers affected lecturer performance.In Indonesia, public universities, in general, are regarded as being much more prestigious and more favored by students than their private counterparts. Therefore, Indonesian private institutions are also more vulnerable in an increasingly competitive environment. This argument is supported by research evidence revealed by Chien-ern et al. (2008) in Taiwan higher education system. Their administrators are more eager than their public counterparts to try new strategies for getting out of the predicament. Indonesian government financial and non-financial support is perceived as the most influential determinant for public universities. Due to the lack of financial support and potential market demand, it was reported that about 40 percent of private universities (1,080 universities) in 2008 are going out of business (Sinar Indonesia Baru, 2008). Such salient different conditions may cause lecturer performance variation between public and private universities. Based on the literature review, it is then hypothesized as follows:H2. Demographic characteristics (i.e. age, gender, experience, educational level, academic rank, and school background) are related to lecturer performance of public universities and private universities in Indonesia.\nResearch methods: Sample and data\nResults: Exploratory factor analysis and reliability test\nConclusion and recommendations: This study empirically examines the impact of lecturer participation on lecturer performance in higher education institutions in Indonesia. There are several conclusions based on the research findings described in the previous section. First, this research finds that academic rank positively affects lecturer performance. Surely, in Indonesia, engaging more in research, teaching, publications, public service and other managerial activities becomes an academic requirement and prerequisite for the lecturers to get a higher academic rank.Secondly, gender status, university status, age, experience, marital status and education do not have significant effect on lecturer performance. These findings suggest that it is of high priority that the Indonesian government immediately set a better performance appraisal system and reward system to obtain a better lecturer performance.Thirdly, this research finds that participative decision making has a significant impact on lecturer performance in higher education institutions in Indonesia. This finding strongly recommends educational leaders to encourage a higher level of their lecturer involvement (engagement) both emotionally and physically in making decisions related to school operations and management, students' school experiences, teachers' work life and control over classroom instruction. By doing so, this policy is expected to increase lecturer and university performance.Fourthly, this research has partially failed to support research hypotheses related to the effect of several demographic characteristics. It is contradictory to the findings of Eyupoglu and Saner (2009), Kennedy and Drennan (1998), Adeyemi (2008), and Kadri et al. (2009) and Chien-ern et al. (2008). Since not only local but also central government have allocated a numerous facilities to the public universities, it is recommended to expeditiously administer a profound examination on factors affecting the research anomalies regarding university status, academic rank, educational level and teaching experiences.Finally, to capture a deeper explanation of factors affecting lecturer performance in higher educational institution in Indonesia, it is suggested for future research to take into account other personal and organizational factors such as motivation, recruitment system, performance appraisal system and reward system into their research model.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The relationship between participation and job performance has captured the interest of not only business researchers but also education researchers. However, the topic has not gained significant attention in the educational management research arena. The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the impact of participation in decision making on lecturer performance in higher education.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Mail survey was used to collect the data. Open-ended questionnaires were distributed to the lecturers in Yogyakarta Province in Indonesia. A total of 347 usable questionnaires were obtained which is about 46.3 percent rate of return. Factor analysis was used to identify the constructs. All Cronbach's alpha values are more than 0.7 and factor loading is more than 0.50. Regression analysis was employed to test research hypotheses. In addition, t-test and ANOVA test were also conducted to investigate the different impact of demographic data on the job performance of the lecturers.\nFindings: - This study finds that participative decision making and academic rank have significant effect on lecturer performance. This finding implies that involving lecturers in educational decision making would be useful to improve not only lecturer performance but also organizational performance. In addition, among all demographic variables taken into account, only academic rank significantly affects lecturer performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This study assumes constant the reward system and performance appraisal factors that might affect the relationship between participation and lecturer performance. The research findings urge the Indonesian government to immediately set an order of a participative decision making system to facilitate the realization of a better quality of Indonesian higher education performance.\nOriginality/value: - Participative decision making is a tool to align an organization's vision and a lecturer's objectives. The higher the level of lecturer's participation in decision making the higher the lecturer's commitment to the organization's vision and the higher the lecturer's performance will be.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Linking workplace bullying and EVLN outcomes: Role of psychological contract violation and workplace friendship	[ "Psychological contract violation", "Workplace bullying", "EVLN outcomes", "Indian managers", "Workplace friendship" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The past two decades have witnessed a considerable academic and public interest in workplace bullying given its increasing occurrence in the workplace and severe negative impacts on employees and organizations (Tuckey and Neall, 2014). Workplace bullying is considered as a salient workplace stressor and represents repetitive and systematic negative interpersonal acts toward employees (e.g. excessive workload, unrealistic deadlines, persistent criticism, insulting remarks, etc.) mostly directed by supervisors (Einarsen et al., 2011). Unlike other workplace stressors, workplace bullying owing to its two distinguishing features - persistency and power disparities - represents a problematic event for employees as they have to face this mistreatment on a regular basis and are constrained by lack of power to raise voice against it (Einarsen et al., 2011). The study of employees' responses to problematic workplace events is one of the central themes in organizational behavior literature (Rusbult et al., 1988). A well-established and systematic framework to study employee responses to adverse workplace situations is EVLN typology. The EVLN paradigm, first proposed by Hirschmann (1970) and subsequently expanded by others (e.g. Farrell, 1983; Rusbult et al., 1988), predicts that when employees encounter adverse workplace situation, they respond by engaging in four possible responses termed as EVLN responses.\nTheoretical background and hypotheses development: The COR theory (Hobfoll, 1989) is one of the most influential theories explaining the causes and consequences of stress by focusing on the role of resources. At the core of this theory is the view that people strive to obtain, retain and protect their resources (Hobfoll, 2001). Stress occurs when resources are threatened, lost or when invested resources do not reap the anticipated level of return (Hobfoll, 1989). Hobfoll (1989) defined resources as:\"Those objects, personal characteristics, conditions, or energies that are valued or that serve as a means of obtaining resources that are valued\" (p. 516). Objects are resources that have physical presence, such as shelter and clothing and that may be linked to socioeconomic status. Condition resources are valued as structures or states, such as social relationships, supervisory support, status at work, fairness, personal control over the job, and involvement in important decision-making processes etc. These kinds of resources influence one's decision to stay at a particular job or to leave and to involve or withdwar [sic.] from desirable workplace attitudes and behaviors. Personal characteristic resources are individual traits (self-esteem, resiliency and hardiness etc.) and coping skills that aid stress resistance. Social support, including family or co-worker support, can increase or reduce this kind of resources. Energy resources are valued skills and abilities that can be exchanged for other resources including time, money and knowledge. In an organization, the major resources available to employees are condition resources, personal characteristic resources and energy resources.\nMediating role of PCV: PCs consist of the beliefs employees hold regarding the terms of the informal exchange agreement between themselves and their organizations (Rousseau, 1998). These contracts cover the basic norms of organizational life like respect, candid and fair treatment, good and supportive work environment, open and direct communication, job security, etc. (Sonnenberg et al., 2011). Presence of workplace bullying may foster the feeling in employees that the organization (or its agents) has failed to fulfill one or more of its obligations comprising the PCs of \"respect and fair treatment\" at the workplace, and thus employees may perceive contract violation. PCV is an emotional manifestation of a broken promise by one's organization (Robinson and Morrison, 2000). For instance, yelling at someone, belittlement, persistent criticism of work and insulting remarks are all associated with the negative emotions of letdown, disappointment, frustration, anger and resentment representing contract violation (Glaso et al., 2010). These negative emotions, in turn, are considered fundamental in driving employees' attitudinal and behavioral reactions (Cassar and Briner, 2011).\nModerating role of workplace friendship: Research suggests that the extent to which employees actually involve in resource conservation tactics in response to the ongoing challenges may be dependent on their perceptions of the availability of other resources that can compensate for and replenish the depleted ones (Hobfoll, 1989; Lam et al., 2010). Friendship/coworker support has been treated as a resource in the COR theory (Hobfoll, 1989). The friendship network provides employees with emotional, social and instrumental support and other avenues from which to convene greater resources during times of stress (Hobfoll and Shirom, 2001) and, thus, both can widen one's pool of available resources and can replace or reinforce other resources that have been lacking (Hobfoll, 1989; Hobfoll and Shirom, 2001).\nMethods: Sample and study procedure\nAnalytical strategy: The tests of the hypotheses in the present study involved path analysis employing structural equation modeling using AMOS version 20. We followed the four-step procedure proposed by Baron and Kenny (1986) to test the direct and mediated effects.\nResults: Descriptive statistics, intercorrelations and scale reliabilities are presented in Table II. The zero-order correlations were all in the expected direction, indicating preliminary support for the hypothesized relationships.\nDiscussion: Drawing from assumptions of COR theory, the present study examined workplace bullying-EVLN outcomes relationship with PCV as a mediator and workplace friendship as a moderator. As predicted, the results revealed positive relationships between bullying-exit and bullying-neglect and negative relationships between bullying-voice and bullying-loyalty. These findings suggest that employees facing workplace bullying in their organizations are more likely to leave their organizations or involve in neglect and less likely to involve in voice and loyalty. These research findings are consistent with those of previous research that has used the assumptions of COR theory to show that resource loss resulting from workplace stressors can lead to a number of unfavorable outcomes (Whitman et al., 2014; Xu et al., 2015).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between workplace bullying and EVLN outcomes with psychological contract violation as a mediator and workplace friendship as a moderator.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 835 full-time Indian managerial employees working in different Indian organizations.\nFindings: Results revealed that workplace bullying positively related to exit and neglect and negatively related to voice and loyalty. PCV mediated bullying-EVLN outcomes relationship and effects of workplace bullying on proposed outcomes were weaker in the presence of high workplace friendship.\nResearch limitations/implications: A cross-sectional design and use of self-reported questionnaire data are few limitations of this study.\nOriginality/value: This study adds to the limited literature examining EVLN typology in response to workplace bullying. This study is one of the rare attempts to examine bullying-outcomes relationships in the Indian context.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Social media promotions and travelers' value-creating behaviors: the role of perceived support	[ "Word-of-mouth", "Perceived support", "Social media interactions", "Customers’ suggestions", "Monetary promotions", "Non-monetary promotions" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Travel companies have traditionally sought customer behaviors that benefit their firms. Travelers' suggestions can be vital sources of information (Bartkus et al., 2009) and influence others' perceptions via word-of-mouth (WOM) (Casalo et al., 2010). Therefore, firms capitalizing on the talents of their customers and including them as potential partners may incur competitive advantages over other firms (Bettencourt, 1997).\n2. Theoretical background and formulation of hypotheses: 2.1 Monetary and non-monetary online promotions in the travel industry\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Research design\n4. Results: Once we had validated the measures, we developed a structural equation model (see Figure 1) that gave support to our five hypotheses and achieved acceptable values of model fit. We report path coefficients, R2 of endogenous variables, effect sizes and the predictive relevance of our model (Hair et al., 2017; Chin, 2010).\n5. Discussion and conclusions: 5.1 Conclusions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Encouraging travelers to create value that benefits firms is of great relevance for companies that operate in online contexts. The purpose of this study is to investigate, focusing on online travel agencies, how monetary promotions (i.e. economic incentives) and non-monetary promotions (i.e. draws and contests) conducted through social media enhance customers' voluntary behaviors (i.e. suggestions, word of mouth, and social media interactions) that go beyond brand choice, which may provide benefit to firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research model draws on the social exchange theory, equity theory and the concept of perceived support - how customers perceive that companies care about their well-being. The authors collect information from 491 users of online travel agencies in Spain and test their hypotheses using partial least squares. They also evaluate the existence of indirect effects.\nFindings: Promotions developed by companies make customers more likely to perform, voluntarily, the helping behaviors of suggestions, word of mouth and social media interactions, through the influence of perceived support.\nResearch limitations/implications: Use of a single survey to collect measures and restriction of the sample to Spanish-speaking travelers suggests caution in generalizing the results. Future research could investigate other company-initiated actions and other value-creating behaviors of travelers.\nPractical implications: Promotions help develop perceived support for customers, which leads to voluntary, valuable traveler behaviors. Promotions may be also sufficient to trigger some customer behaviors, such as word-of-mouth.\nOriginality/value: Based on the social exchange and equity theories, this paper investigates the influence of social media promotions on customers' voluntary behaviors via perceived support.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The EU clothing market in 2008 - opening the floodgates?	[ "Garment industry", "European Union", "Imports" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In recent years I have twice analysed developments further to the liberalization of the EU clothing market in this journal (Curran, 2007a, 2007b). Those analyses tended to indicate that fears of \"floods\" of imports from low cost locations after liberalization seemed to be rather exaggerated, especially once new restrictions were placed on China in mid-2005. However, fears remained that once Chinese exports to the EU were fully liberalized in 2008, there would be major disruption on the market. Mainly motivated by these fears, the European Commission agreed a \"double checking\" system with the Chinese authorities which the European industry has welcomed as a means \"to seek early redress, and thus to avoid a re-run of the events of Summer 2005\" (Euratex, 2007). Thus in spite of the lapsing of all quantitative restrictions on Chinese clothing trade, in eight key categories trade remained closely monitored, with the threat of \"redress\" if sudden surges were felt. Such threats may have impacted on flows. This short paper will look at what actually happened in 2008 as the EU's clothing trade finally became free of quotas and quantitative restrictions for the first time since the 1960s.\nThe EU clothing market in 2008 - China does not take all?: Table I shows the figures on clothing[1] imports from the top 30 suppliers to the EU over the period 2004-2008. The trends in 2008 are, of course, of particular interest, however, they also need to be seen in a broader context. Clearly China has been the key \"winner\" of the liberalization process since 2004, with annual growth rates of 21 per cent over that time. This development has taken China from an EU market share of 26 per cent to 42 per cent. Its closest rival supplier- Turkey - has barely seen any change in its EU exports over the period, while Bangladesh and India, the next most important sources, have also seen increases, although less so than China.Looking at the changes in 2008, clearly China did increase its exports, as expected, but by less than the annual average over the period. This is quite surprising. In the first six months of full liberalization of the EU's textile import sector in 2005, China's exports increased by more than 40 per cent. Although only ten categories of clothing have remained restricted since then, under the Memorandum of Understanding negotiated with China, these were, almost by definition, categories where competitive pressure from Chinese goods were highest - such as t-shirts and trousers. Thus a larger increase in imports might have been expected.There are three possible explanations for this development. Firstly that the broader economic situation depressed demand to such an extent that Chinese manufacturers could not expand their market as much as might have been possible otherwise. Secondly that fears of a backlash in the case of large increases led to self-restrain in exporting, especially given the strict monitoring of trade. The last possibility is that the changing price structure of Chinese industry, which is reported to be under increasing competitive pressure for a variety of reasons, including a shortage of key workers (Teagarden and Cai, 2008) made it a less competitive source of clothing products and resulted in falling orders (The Economist, 2009). It seems likely that the explanation incorporates all of these factors. However, as for clothing trade as a whole, it will not be clear until the dust settles from the financial crisis how much of the changes are structural or politically influenced and how much related to the business cycle.The performance of other countries on the EU market gives us an indication of the extent to which market developments are the reason for the rather lower than expected increase in Chinese clothing imports. Clearly the EU market was relatively un-dynamic in 2008. The increase in clothing imports from all sources was only 2 per cent compared with 7 per cent over the period since 2004. Thus China's increase is certainly impressive in relative terms. In addition it has to be seen in a context where several key sources from the EU neighbourhood have seen rather more negative developments.In previous work for this journal I have differentiated between trends in the EU neighbourhood, in developing countries more widely and in the Asian tigers. This distinction is still relevant, as we see very similar developments in 2008 to those experienced in earlier years. I will therefore discuss the trends in these different regions in turn.\nThe EU neighbourhood: In general, traditional EU suppliers have seen rather negative trajectories in their clothing exports since liberalization, which are further exacerbated by the latest market opening. Turkey was worst hit in 2008, with a fall of 11 per cent in exports, but others have seen similar trends. Morocco, Tunisia, Croatia and Ukraine have all seen stagnating or falling exports over the period since 2004. A few countries have experienced increased exports over the period - Albania, Bosnia Herzogovina, Serbia, Macedonia and Moldova (although the latter experienced a fall in 2008). All are likely to be related to improvements in the political situation[2], more than structural changes in the EU market as such. Finally, Egypt stands out as the only Southern Mediterranean source to see increased clothing exports, especially in 2008.\nDeveloping countries: Prior to liberalization, fears had been expressed that poor underdeveloped Asian countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan were vulnerable to loss of market share further to the opening of the developed country markets (Mlachila and Yang, 2004; World Bank, 2004). In reality, EU clothing imports from developing countries (DCs) have seen rather varied trajectories since 2004, with the two countries in question seeing different impacts - Bangladesh has maintained a positive trajectory, even in the difficult circumstances of 2008, whereas Pakistan has seen its exports to the EU stagnate. Amongst other DCs we see healthy growth of over 10 per cent for India over the period, although this was abruptly halted in 2008. Earlier analysis of the impacts of the initial liberalization and re-imposition of restrictions on China indicated that India was one of the key countries to \"benefit\" from the continued restrictions in that their exports increased when China's were restricted (Curran, 2007a). It is not surprising then that it has seen stagnating exports in the year when China finally became unrestricted in its exports to the EU.Of the other important developing country suppliers, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and (to a lesser extent) Cambodia have all experienced growth over the period, including in the difficult circumstances of 2008. Clearly they are managing to hold their own against Chinese competition. Less successful have been the higher cost DCs like Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia, which have all seen falls in exports, exacerbated in the last year by the Chinese liberalization.Certain smaller exporters have clearly struggled to maintain competitiveness in recent years. The most important African suppliers to the EU market by some way are Mauritius and Madagascar. Mauritius, for whom clothing had been an important industry[3], has seen annual falls of almost 5 per cent over the period, further exacerbated in 2008, while Madagascar, which had seen growth in its exports, probably helped by its special access to the market as a Least Developed Country, saw a sudden reversal in 2008 with a loss of 12 per cent. Clearly low cost labour is not the only issue in competing in a post-liberalisation context.\nAsian tigers: The countries worst affected in the initial period after liberalization (early 2005) were the Asian tigers - Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Korea - although the re-imposition of restrictions on China seemed to mitigate the impact somewhat. It is clear that this negative impact has nevertheless persisted over time, with the further liberalization in 2008 negatively affecting the exports of Hong Kong (-48 per cent) and Macau (-51 per cent) particularly strongly. The extent to which this fall reflects real reductions in output in these two autonomous regions is debatable. As highlighted in earlier work, Hong Kong in particular has played a very important role as a transshipment centre for Chinese goods and discrepancies between trade figures of the mainland and Hong Kong frequently complicate the analysis of trade flows (Curran, 2008). It seems likely that a large percentage of the falls in exports from Hong Kong were balanced by exports from mainland China, often controlled by related companies.Finally Taiwan and Korea also saw major falls in their exports to the EU market over the time period and particularly in 2008. Clearly some of their clothing trade is directly substitutable with trade from other lower cost Asian sources, especially China.\nDiscussion: Developments in the EU clothing market in 2008 are in many ways indicative of the manner in which the global clothing industry has been evolving in recent years. In a market no longer constrained by quota restrictions, we see moves towards a structure of production more based on the costs of key factors of production, particularly labour, and less on politically constructed advantages. Thus we see reductions in the exports of the more expensive newly industrialized countries like Indonesia, while certain less developed countries with lower labour costs, like Bangladesh, seem to be maintaining their position, at least for the moment.Whether they can continue to compete against China in the newly liberalized context is a key question. As indicated above there will be little clarity in the situation until the global financial crisis eases and markets return to some type of \"normality\". The structure of clothing production may be different after that restructuring, however. It is fair to say that much depends on what happens in China.It has been the assumption of many commentators that China has unlimited production capacity with which to service the global market - pushing out smaller suppliers in the process (e.g. Kaplinsky and Morris, 2006). However, even before the crisis many Chinese firms faced difficulties due to rising costs. At the same time the analysis of overall trade figures indicate a rapid upgrading of Chinese exports away from low tech, standardized products like clothing, towards more technologically oriented goods. For example China controlled 18 per cent of world high-tech trade in 2005, slightly more than the EU and an increase of 14 percentage points since 1995. Furthermore, by 2005 34 per cent of Chinese trade was in these high tech goods - a higher figure than for either the EU or the USA (Curran and Zignago, 2009). Once the crisis passes, it is quite possible that the area of the Chinese economy that will turn out to be the most heavily trimmed will be labour-intensive low-tech industries like clothing. If this is the case, the future geography of the clothing industry may be more diverse than pessimists might have thought.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to briefly review the trends on clothing imports into the EU in 2008, the year when quantitative restrictions on all EU clothing imports lapsed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper looks at trade figures as reported by Eurostat and, in particular changes between 2004-2008, the period during which clothing trade was liberalised.\nFindings: - The paper finds that clothing imports from China increased in 2008 as predicted by many actors. However the extent of this increase was less than might have been expected from the impact of earlier liberalisations. Several explanations are suggested for this observation. More broadly, the liberalisation of the EU clothing market seems to have had rather negative impacts on clothing suppliers in the EU neighbourhood, while amongst developing country suppliers the impacts have been rather varied, with Bangladesh and India showing quite strong performance while other, often smaller, suppliers have seen rather negative trends. The impact on the Asian tigers has been universally negative, with large falls in exports, especially in Hong Kong and Macao.\nPractical implications: - The year 2008 was the first for decades that EU clothing imports were unrestricted by quotas. These trade figures therefore give us a good indication of the true situation in relation to competitive advantage within a sector in which trade has long been distorted by policy.\nOriginality/value: - The trade figures for 2008 have only just become available, therefore this is the first chance to look at trade flows into the EU in an unrestricted context.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The online purchase as a context for co-creating experiences. Drivers of and consequences for customer behavior	[ "C2C interactions", "Co-creation experience", "Coproduction", "Engagement platforms", "Online cues", "Online purchase" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, firms from a wide variety of industries have encouraged their customers to collaborate with them (e.g. Nike, Lego and Starbucks, among others). Customers participate in the decision making, design and distribution of the offering (product or service), share their knowledge, and become active partners in co-creation of value processes (Kumar et al., 2010; Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2000; Vargo and Lusch, 2004).\n2. Co-creating value through experiences: the co-creation experience: The concept of co-creation has attracted much attention in recent research (see, e.g. Ballantyne and Varey, 2006; Finsterwalder and Kuppelwieser, 2011; Hoyer et al., 2010). It is an all-encompassing concept that reflects the premise that value is not created exclusively by the firm but also by the interactions between and the joint activities carried out by different actors, including customers (Gronroos, 2012; Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004; Ramaswamy, 2011; Wu and Fang, 2010). This premise modifies the idea of production as a value creation activity and consumption as a value destruction activity, positioning both of them as value-creating activities and opportunities for community participation (Firat and Venkatesh, 1993; Firat et al., 1995).\n3. Model and hypotheses: In our research, we focus on virtual engagement platforms and propose a theoretical framework to illustrate the customer-firm co-creation process (Figure 1). This framework establishes the importance of involving customers in a global co-constructed experience in order to engage them and to create mutual value. The firm and the customers should act together in a merged, coordinated and dialogical process that begins during the purchase and accumulates value through the whole process until the offering is used (Gronroos, 2011, 2012). Therefore, we differentiate two stages in the process: the purchase experience and the consumption experience.\n4. Methodology and results: 4.1 Design, procedure and measurement\n5. Conclusions: The present research studies the purchase experience in engagement platforms as an important stage in the co-creation of value process. Our results have shown that implementing cues related to coproduction and C2C interactions increases customer co-creation experience and purchase intentions.\n6. Implications, limitations and future research: 6.1 Research implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the concept of engagement platforms and the theories of co-creation of value to analyze the purchase as a context for customers to co-create their own experiences. Specifically, the paper proposes that including online cues related to Customer to customer (C2C) interactions and coproduction in the engagement platform determines customer co-creation experiences. Moreover, the paper tests for the relationship between the co-creation experience and customer's purchase intentions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An online platform was designed and a purchase situation was simulated, in which the participants were asked to buy a pair of sneakers. To make the experience more realistic, participants could navigate and undertake activities related to the available cues, thus obtaining a direct experience of the possibilities of the platform. Structural equation modeling analyses were used to test the hypothesized relationships.\nFindings: The results confirm the importance of including cues related to C2C interactions and coproduction in order to increase co-creation experience possibilities for the customer during the online purchase. Moreover, if customers perceive that they are co-creating the experience, their purchase intentions increase.\nPractical implications: This paper addresses the importance of virtual engagement platforms as touch points for interaction and the importance of their characteristics for facilitating co-creation. These platforms provide customers with cues that promote their participation, the establishment of collaborative relationships and the co-creation of the purchase experience.\nOriginality/value: There is a growing interest in understanding how customers interact with firms to co-create experiences and in the influence of IT-related service in this process. Nevertheless, to date, the online purchase experience as a co-creation context has not been fully investigated.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Professional avatars: librarians and educators in virtual worlds	[ "Virtual worlds", "Second Life", "Avatars", "Digital reference", "Distance education", "Librarians", "Distance learning" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Today's librarians and educators stand at the crossroads of two worlds - teaching and answering questions within \"brick and mortar\" libraries and classrooms while also handling the \"virtual branch\" or \"virtual classroom\" for a growing audience of online users. In the USA alone, 3.9 million students enrolled in online courses in Fall 2007, increasing to 5.6 million by Fall 2009 (Allen and Seaman, 2008, 2010). Libraries support \"virtual\" users via e-mail, chat, instant messaging and other online technologies used among more than 12 million reference transactions handled by US research libraries during 2007-2008 (Kyrillidou and Bland, 2009). Keeping up with new technologies in teaching and answering questions for online students is an ongoing challenge for librarians and educators.In exploring possibilities beyond text-based online communication, educators and librarians have experimented with virtual worlds such as Second Life (see www.secondlife.com). Second Life (SL) users enter a graphical, visually rich immersive environment in which the real-world self is represented by an online avatar that can speak, emote, gesture, and even rise into the air and fly. This virtual \"self\" is infinitely customizable and can appear as human, animal, mechanized, or an inanimate object.As early as 2002, educators experimented with teaching classes in Second Life (Mon, 2009). Second Life Library 2.0, today known as the Community Virtual Library, launched in April 2006, and by 2007 librarians working as avatars on the Info Islands had answered 6,769 virtual reference questions (Alliance Library System, 2008; Bell et al., 2007). Also by 2007, more than 70 colleges, universities, and schools had created an in-world presence (Jennings and Collins, 2007), establishing a building, teaching location, or campus.Professional education work in a virtual world involves creating a personal avatar and learning to use it while teaching and communicating information. This article examines virtual world communication in educational contexts, seeking to understand the \"professional as avatar\" and its impact on the professional work of librarians and educators in virtual worlds.\n2. Background: Most research on educators and librarians in Second Life involves descriptive case studies of classes (Delwiche, 2006; Jarmon et al., 2008; Kemp, 2008; Sanchez, 2009) or case studies of individual libraries. (Buckland and Godfrey, 2010; Czarnecki, 2008; Godfrey, 2008; Hill and Lee, 2009; Swanson, 2007) As yet, few researchers have surveyed or interviewed educators and librarians working in virtual worlds (Luo, 2008; Luo and Kemp, 2008; New Media Consortium, 2007).Luo (2008) surveyed 21 reference volunteer librarians about their work with the Second Life reference service, finding that the majority answered questions on Second Life topics, but fewer received non-Second Life related questions. Luo and Kemp (2008) surveyed 25 educators about teaching LIS students in Second Life, learning that the majority used Second Life for class activities, exercises and assignments rather than for lectures, and that many used the virtual world for group exercises and team-building, and as a place for students to give presentations. A survey of 209 educators, librarians and students by New Media Consortium (2007) found that 57 respondents reported teaching in the virtual world, and 103 stated that their institution either owned a virtual island or rented land in-world.Two other methods used by researchers were comprehensive reviews of the research literature, and unobtrusive observations. Mon (2010) conducted an in-depth review of the research literature to provide a detailed account of Second Life teaching methods. Jennings and Collins (2007, p. 181) observed workplaces of 70 educational institutions in Second Life, finding that information was commonly communicated to visitors via visual displays such as signs (76.1 percent) or clickable web links (46.5 percent). The most comprehensive review of library workplaces was a sample of eight public libraries observed by Stimpson (2009), who identified potentially promising best practices such as offering library events, group memberships, gifts, and tutorials.\n3. Purpose of study: Notably missing from the literature was exploration by LIS researchers of the impact of \"avatar-mediated communication\" (Castronova, 2003) on the professional work of librarians and educators. Second Life supports text chat, instant messaging and audio, and embodies librarians and educators as avatars with the ability to \"recreate themselves\" with any desired appearance as well as to modify their graphically rendered surroundings. This raises the key question: how does avatar-mediated communication influence professional information interactions conducted by librarians and educators in Second Life?While some research has explored the impact of avatar self-representation on users (Boellstorff, 2008; Yee and Bailenson, 2007; Lee and Hoadley, 2006), only limited research has focused on educator and librarian avatar embodiment in a professional, working context (New Media Consortium, 2007). Improved understanding of the dynamics of professional identity in virtual worlds would support librarians and educators in more effectively utilizing highly graphical digital and virtual world environments for teaching and information services in future.\n4. Method: This study utilized a qualitative, ethnographic approach of immersion in Second Life as a participant observer, followed by workplace observations and semi-structured in-world interviews with librarians and educators. Preparation began by joining Second Life in August 2006 as a participant observer, spending five or more hours per week for over a year and a half within the librarian and educator communities prior to the interview phase in May 2008. The participant observer phase included learning about librarians and educators in Second Life through direct experiences such as asking questions as a patron and answering questions as a librarian, attending classes as a student and teaching as an educator; and undertaking other roles in librarian and educator communities including audience member, group member, group leader, event organizer, meeting leader, conference attendee, conference planner, conference presenter, tour leader, tour follower, campus workplace builder and library builder. This immersive involvement facilitated preparation for interviews through acquiring functional skills and knowledge of the history, culture, and language of the virtual world's users.Twelve interviews were conducted from May 2008 to December 2008 with seven librarians and five educators either at their Second Life workplaces, or at an in-world research facility. During interviews, avatars sat on sofas or chairs around a recording device. The device recorded only participants who willingly touched the device to indicate their consent after being informed about the study and their rights as research participants.Following one-hour semi-structured interviews, photographs were taken of avatars in their Second Life workplaces or at the research facility. Photos were also taken of librarian and educator workplace settings, and any available information objects were collected. Fifty in-world library workplaces were visited between May 2008 and January 2009.Data analysis was conducted in two phases:1. In Phase I, a first-level analysis explored how librarians and educators answered questions and provided information in Second Life (Mon, 2009). This initial study described work activities and information tools used by librarians and educators, types of questions answered, how they provided information, and improved functionalities that they would have liked to have in better managing information work in Second Life.2. In Phase II, the current study, a secondary-level analysis focused on the avatar-mediated aspect of librarians' and educators' professional work in Second Life - the visualized self-representations of librarians, educators, and their professional workplaces, and the impact of these visualized representations on information work and teaching. Emerging in this second phase of the study was an issue uniquely challenging to librarians and educators working within virtual worlds - establishing professional identity, credibility and trust while embodied as an avatar in a highly visual, \"game-like\" setting.Data analysis was guided by a theoretical framework drawing upon the work of sociologist Erving Goffman on presentation of the self (Goffman, 1959). Goffman's work has influenced virtual world researchers including Carr (2008) in research with students in Second Life, Boostrom (2008) on virtual identity for new users in Second Life, Delwiche (2006, p.164) on identity within Everquest, and McDonough (1999) on virtual identity in research with designers of virtual worlds.Goffman's work was grounded in symbolic interactionism and focused on impression management and presentation of the self within interpersonal interactions. (Blumer, 1969; Goffman, 1959) In Goffman's view, interpersonal interactions were performative, staged and framed within each participant's expectations about the setting, their socially-defined roles, and actions perceived as appropriate for the encounter. Individuals maintain multiple public roles or \"selves\", selectively presenting the \"self\" appropriate for each audience (Goffman, 1961). Within this social performance of identity, one could \"lose face\" when not treated with appropriate respect during an encounter (Goffman, 1955). Individuals may selectively reveal or conceal information about the self, the \"information preserve\", and seek to exert control over who can summon him or her into conversation, or the \"conversational preserve\" (Goffman, 1997a, p. 140; Goffman, 1997b, pp. 50-1). Goffman's conceptions of frame, setting, roles, performative identity, stigma, face, the information preserve and conversational preserve provided the framework for data analysis. Member-checking was used in discussing findings with study participants, and in presenting results and inviting comments at real world and in-world conferences and discussion groups attended by Second Life librarians and educators. It should be noted that the generalizability or transferability of these results is limited by the small sample size as well as the highly changeable nature of virtual environments over time. As will be discussed in the conclusions, virtual world builders sometimes introduce key modifications to these environments, and particularly in response to findings of researchers.\n5. Findings: 5.1 The professional as avatar\n6. Conclusions: This study found that librarians and educators faced the problem of commonly held perceptions of the virtual world as a game rather than a place for education and learning, a difficulty also discussed by Carr (2008) who referenced Goffman's Frame Analysis (Goffman, 1974) in terms of how a game-like environment could influence students' understandings, or misunderstandings, of the serious nature of in-world teaching and learning activities.In reframing the virtual world as an environment for professional activity, librarians and educators \"set the scene\" with workplace visual elements emphasizing educational purpose such as computers, books, and bookshelves. Stimpson (2009, p. 16) similarly found that computers were a typical workplace feature for in-world public libraries. However, traditional design motifs are observed beyond educational settings. Sociologist Nathaniel Glazer (2005) wrote of his surprise upon seeing throughout Second Life how \"conservative and traditional the created spaces of the virtual world are\".For an avatar appearance that would be 'taken seriously', librarians and educators often chose traditional, conservative humanoid self-representations. Other research on avatars in business and sales confirms humanoid appearance as more \"liked\" by customers (Keeling et al., 2010). Librarians and educators purchased items for a higher-quality appearance in deference to expectations of Second Life residents, which echoed findings in research by Boostrom (2008, p. 17) on how purchased items enhanced identity for stigmatized newbies. Several other studies (Taylor, 1999; Messinger et al., 2008; Yee and Bailenson, 2007) emphasize the importance of attractive avatar appearance. In research by Taylor (1999, p. 441) one participant summed up the impact of avatar identity as performative choice: \"people treat you based on how you present yourself, and, if you pay attention, you'll notice that you change depending on how you present yourself\". Second Life has recently responded to researcher-identified stigmatization of new users by introducing a key modification - regularly changing, higher-quality avatars for incoming users, making it more difficult to visually identify new users.Alternative identity was sometimes used in creating a separate \"self\" for fulfilling tasks, with five of the librarians and educators (42 percent) reporting that they maintained an \"alt\" identity. The New Media Consortium (2007, p. 5) found that among 207 educators and librarians surveyed, 33 percent created two or more Second Life accounts. Alternative identity can extend to other virtual worlds as well. Taylor (1999, pp. 439-40) refers to \"plural existence\" in which users have digital selves in not just one, but multiple virtual worlds. Second Life is one among hundreds of virtual worlds in existence.Although the extent of mainstream adoption of virtual worlds remains to be seen, some trends toward increasing use can be observed. During 2009, Second Life users logged 481 million in-world hours and spent $US567m dollars on virtual goods and services, and in December 2009 traffic increased upon release of James Cameron's blockbuster movie Avatar (Linden, 2010a; Linden, 2010b). Open source virtual world software options coupled with recent price increases by Linden Labs sparked a diaspora to other virtual worlds such as ReactionGrid (see http://reactiongrid.com/). Meanwhile, game-based learning continues to gain traction among educators (Annetta et al., 2010) as children grow up with online games and virtual worlds.Traffic of children into virtual worlds is driven by corporations bundling virtual world logins with children's toys such as Webkinz stuffed animals, Bratz dolls and Barbie dolls. Millions of young users play and socialize together in Runescape, with 4.5 million users in 2009, Club Penguin, with 4.6 million unique visitors in March 2008 alone, and other settings (Buckleitner, 2008; Snider and Molina, 2009). Steinkuehler and Williams (2006, p. 886) described online games as potential \"third places\", while Crowe and Bradford (2006, p. 337) suggested that parents may perceive virtual public spaces as safer for children than physical public spaces. For young users, growing up with gaming and virtual worlds may raise future expectations of more visually engaging and immersive experiences within online libraries and online education.A continuing challenge for librarians and educators is in evolving best practices for avatar-mediated interactions. One librarian in this study described \"a hybrid of library and museum techniques\" allowing \"the interplay of words and images to tell the story\" within virtual world workplaces. While it remains too soon to speak of universally-accepted best practices, the work of early adopters provides foundational groundwork toward establishing professional standards and new media literacies in librarianship and education within virtual worlds.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This study aims to examine librarianship and education in virtual world settings, focusing particularly on how librarians and educators establish professional identity and trust while teaching and providing information services as avatars within Second Life.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data was gathered through semi-structured in-depth interviews with 12 librarians and educators within the virtual world of Second Life, and in visits to 50 virtual world workplaces.\nFindings: - Librarians and educators faced challenges of establishing professional identity and credibility for two different audiences - i.e. \"newbies\" and \"residents\" - within the \"game-like\" virtual world environment. Visual elements such as a conservative, humanoid avatar appearance, and imagery drawn from traditional workplaces were used by librarians and educators to establish their professional role with \"newbies\", while for \"residents\" an upgraded avatar appearance was necessary to convey credibility.\nPractical implications: - For librarians and educators working within highly visual, graphical online settings such as virtual worlds, this study describes issues in providing avatar-mediated online distance education and online library services.\nOriginality/value: - This research provides in-depth interviews and observations with librarians and educators from a variety of libraries and educational settings. The study also explores avatar-mediated communication, which is little-examined as yet in LIS research.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The relationship between involvement, destination emotions and place attachment in the Porto wine cellars	[ "Marketing", "Consumer behaviour", "Tourism", "Structural equation models", "Scale development/testing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Wine tourist behaviour represents a very important study domain because understanding this behaviour is a complex process and stimulus is the key and the engine of the behaviour, particularly in wine tourism. Yuan et al. (2006) argue that understanding the wine consumer behaviour is crucial and can bring marketing benefits. In light of this, wine tourism development has been increasingly international, and the need to better understand the nature of the wine tourist has been a major plus theme in literature (Brown and Getz, 2005).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Construct definition\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Sample design and data collection\n4. Results: The results of the descriptive statistical analysis were based on the respondents' profile according to their sociodemographic information, as shown in Table I.\n5. Discussion and conclusions: This study provided evidence that involvement, DE and PA are positively related to BI of the wine tourist. A synergetic effect between the proposed constructs allows for a more holistic view of wine tourist behaviour and the specific dynamics of the wine tourist behaviour.\n6. Practical implications: The findings may offer important implications for managing wine destination services, such as positioning and reinforcing the consolidation of destination branding of Porto wine cellars. Some implications concern the management of Porto wine cellars.\n7. Research limitations: As research limitations, the reduced data collection period (between 24 August and 5 September 2015) does not allow to generalize results to a semester, year or season, and the data collection only occurred in a unique geographic point (Porto wine cellars) and in four cellars (Taylor's, Croft, Ramos Pinto and Graham's), of a total of seven main cellars, which can limit the generalization to other contexts, owing to budget constraints because this work is an academic study and was not funded.\n8. Suggestions for future research: The limitation regarding the identified reduced time for data collection leads to the suggestion for a longitudinal evaluation of consumer behaviour in wine tourism not only in Porto wine cellars but also other wine tourism destination contexts, such as wine hotels, other types of wine cellars such as the Madeira Wine Company and Champagne wine cellars, wineries or wine estates. Also, it would be useful to evaluate the effect of sociodemographic moderating variables (age, education level, country of origin, job) to test their role and impact on data interpretation for wine tourist segmentation. Considering that combined effects between four constructs (PI, WPI, DE and PA) have a lower determination power in BI, it is suggested to measure these constructs before the visits, during decision-making, to analyse and evaluate if BI of the wine tourists increase in the visits to Porto wine cellars.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to measure the role of involvement, destination emotions and place attachment in the behavioural intentions of wine tourists when visiting Porto wine cellars.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An interceptive survey was conducted with wine tourists during their visits to four Porto wine cellars. A convenience sample of 918 international visitors was obtained. A structural equation model using partial least squares analysis was used to test the hypothesis and the validity of the constructs and model.\nFindings: The structural model results indicated that wine tourists' personal involvement and their wine involvement have a significant and direct influence on destination emotions and place attachment in Porto wine cellars during the visits, which determines their future behavioural intentions.\nResearch limitations/implications: The generalizability of the results may be limited owing to the sample and the data collection method and the short time frame of the data gathering.\nPractical implications: There is a growing potential for researchers and managers to achieve benefits from the proposed model that will support the efforts for wine tourism theory and practice, such as brand positioning strategies and formulation of sharper marketing strategies.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to demonstrate the combined use of personal and wine involvement on destination emotions along with place attachment in a wine tourist behaviour context. This approach extends the scope into a wine tourism context because the combination of these three constructs has never been held in the area of wine tourism destinations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Do pro-social students care more for the environment?	[ "University students", "Social support", "Pro-social", "Pro-environment", "Two stage quantile regressions" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: It is now well recognized that human sustainability relies upon three vital pillars: environmental, economic and social sustainability (Goodland and Daly, 1996; Anand and Sen, 1996; Adams, 2006; Dillard et al., 2008; Sen, 2013). Against the backdrop of this increasing recognition of the need for adopting more holistic approach toward sustainability, there is a perceptive need for enhancing our understanding of the relationship between social and environmental sustainability as it has received relatively limited attention in comparison to the economic and environmental sustainability relationship (Lehtonen, 2004; Littig and Griessler, 2005; Bostrom 2012; Murphy 2012). This study contributes to the growing literature on the relationship between social and environmental sustainability by analyzing the pro-social and pro-environmental attitudes of undergraduate students at a public university in the United States based on self-reported survey responses. The focus on the attitude of university students, who are future agents of change, can provide vital insights into the relationship between social and environmental sustainability that can help in enhancing sustainability education and practice.\n2. Data: 2.1 Survey\n3. Empirical model: There are several personal and social attributes of individuals that may influence both their pro-social and pro-environment attitudes (Gifford and Nilsson, 2014) that are unobserved in our data. Therefore, the measure of pro-social attitude is expected to be endogenous in a regression model that explains pro-environment attitude. In order to address this endogeneity issue, social support is used as an identifying instrument for pro-social attitude. Social support is expected to positively influence pro-social attitude (O'Brien et al., 2012; Wilson et al., 2009), and the only apparent pathway through which social support may influence pro-environment attitude is via pro-social attitude (Waring et al., 2016). Therefore, social support can be argued to be a valid instrument for identifying pro-social attitude when explaining pro-environment attitude. Consequently, the empirical analysis of the relationship between pro-social and pro-environment attitudes relies on a two-stage model with the following pooled cross-section regressions:\n4. Results: The first and second stage results from quantile regressions of the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th quantiles are reported in Table V. Bootstrapped standard errors from 100 replications are reported in the table. The first stage estimates are reported in the odd-numbered columns and the second stage estimates are reported in the even-numbered columns of Table V.\n5. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that there exists a strong positive relationship between pro-social and pro-environmental attitudes by using a two-stage quantile regression analysis based on data from a survey of students of the University of Utah (USA). This key result resonates well with the findings from other studies on the relationship between pro-social and pro-environment attitude of university students such as Waring et al. (2016) who conducted a two-stage least square regression analysis based on survey data of University of Maine (USA) students, and Neaman et al. (2018) who conducted a correlation analysis based on survey data of Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso (Chile) students. In other words, this qualitatively replicable result implies that notwithstanding potential biases in self-reported survey responses, the positive relationship between pro-social and pro-environment attitudes amongst university students is robust to variations in the location of the universities and empirical estimation approach.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to use pro-social and pro-environment attitudes as indicators of social and environmental sustainability to empirically examine the relationship between the two pillars of sustainability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Self-reported survey responses of undergraduate students of the University of Utah are used for conducting a two-stage quantile regression analysis wherein social support serves as an instrument for identifying pro-social attitude for estimating the relationship between pro-social and pro-environment attitudes.\nFindings: The estimates show that students who receive more social support tend to be more pro-social, and more pro-social students are more pro-environment.\nResearch limitations/implications: University students may not necessarily be representative of the broader human society. Studies need to examine this question for different segments of the society.\nOriginality/value: These results reiterate that universities can enhance sustainability education by adopting a more holistic approach wherein social and environmental sustainability are co-integrated. Additionally, by strengthening their role as a vital source of social support for students, universities can further enhance the synergistic relationship between pro-social and pro-environment attitudes of university students.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Unwrap citation count, Altmetric Attention Score and Mendeley readership status of highly cited articles in the top-tier LIS journals	[ "Impact factor", "Library and information science", "Mendeley readership", "Bibliometric", "Altmetric attention score", "Citation count" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Citation count is a quantitative method of measuring the impact of a research work. A higher citation count may indicate that the research work receives more attention among peers, which could mean that the research contributes value to that discipline of literature. Citation count sums the number of times that an article is referenced by other authors. Tracking citations is important; however, the citation impact only tells a part of the story from academic researchers who conduct and publish research works. The impact of the publication on leisure readers and non-publishing readers are ignored. Furthermore, it is difficult to set a standard impact measurement across disciplines. Research showed that articles in the hard sciences (e.g. chemistry, biology) tend to gain more citations than in soft sciences (e.g. social science, psychology) (Harzing, 2010; Nederhof, 2006). Even in the same field, articles that focus on praxis often receive less citation count than those that focus on theories. However, articles that focus on practice are valuable and should be a part of the academic landscape (Akers, 2017). Finally, measuring the value of a newly published article with citation count can be difficult, because citations grow gradually over the years.\nObjective of the study: The objective of the study was to use a multidimensional analysis on the articles published in the top-tier LIS journals. Relationships between impact factors (AAS, citation count and Mendeley readership) were analyzed, and reader profiles were characterized and studied as well. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that presents the spectrum of AAS and Mendeley readership of the most cited articles published in top-tier of LIS journals. The research questions that drove this study include the following:\nMethod: Tier 1 LIS journal title list was adopted from Nixon's (2014) study. In total, 17 journals were identified based on the acceptance and circulation rates, impact factors, h-indexes, literature review and opinion survey. Four journals occupying 24% of the top-tier LIS journals were published by Elsevier. Elsevier is a well-known global leader publishing in science, technical and health field with approximately 420k peer-reviewed research articles annually. Elsevier provides lists of the most cited articles for some journals on its website. Three lists of the top 25 cited on Scopus articles published after January 2013 were found for The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Government Information Quarterly and Library and Information Science Research (Figure 1). The Altmetric Bookmarklet, a free browser plugin, was used to collect the AAS and Mendeley readership of each article. Articles without AAS were excluded. A total of 61 articles were selected. Data were recorded on an Excel spreadsheet and exported to the statistical software package SPSS 18.0 for Windows to perform the descriptive and correlation analysis.\nResults: Overview of the three library and information science journals\nDiscussion: The results of this study indicate that Mendeley readership can be considered as a supplemental impact indicator for LIS research publications in addition to citation count. The conclusion comes from two folds. First, correlation analyses revealed that Mendeley readership and citation have positive and significant relationships. The results also indicate that reading and citing behavior are associated. The results consist with Bar-Ilan et al. (2012) and Zahedi et al.'s (2014) findings for various disciplines such as engineering and technology, medicine, social science, chemistry and physics. The study also exhibits a positive but weak correlation between AAS and citation count. The findings echo with Patel et al.'s (2018) research on cardiovascular journals. AAS weights sources from websites and social media differently. For instance, information from news scores eight points, while a tweet counts for one point. It is worth mentioning the score excludes information from Mendeley readership and CiteULike because the sources lack of full details regarding who was referencing (Altmetric, 2016). The results show that a few posts found on news for LIS journals, while Twitter is the most active platform for distributing and sharing research works. A significant number of tweets can contribute to a higher AAS. Therefore, a strong and positive correlation was found between AAS and Twitter.\nConclusion and future studies: In summary, using AAS and Mendeley readership to evaluate the impact of a publication have the following advantages:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of the study is to use a multidimensional perspective on the analysis of scholarly articles published in the top-tier Library and Information Science (LIS) journals. The relationships between the impact factors (Altmetric attention score [AAS], citation count and Mendeley readership) were analyzed, and reader profiles were characterized and studied.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper examined citation count, AAS and Mendeley readership of the most cited articles published in the top-tier LIS journals - The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Government Information Quarterly and Library and Information Science Research. A total of 61 articles were analyzed. Data were recorded on an Excel spreadsheet and exported to the statistical software package SPSS 18.0 for Windows to perform the descriptive and correlation analysis.\nFindings: This study suggests that Mendeley readership and AAS could be used as supplemental measurements for assessing the impact of a publication or author in the LIS. AAS and Mendeley readership are positively correlated with citation count, and the correlation between Mendeley readership and citation count was stronger than AAS and citation count. Librarians are dominant readers of the top-tier LIS journals, followed by social sciences, computer science and arts and humanities professions.\nOriginality/value: This study introduces two newly launched metrics for measuring the research impact factor and discusses how they correlated with citation count. Moreover, the study details the spectrum of Altmetric for discovering readership of LIS top-tier journals. To the best of authors' knowledge, this is the first study that presents the spectrum of AAS and Mendeley readership of the most cited articles published in top-tier of LIS journals. The study reveals an alternative way of measuring LIS publication's impact factor that enables researchers, librarians, administrators, publishers and other stakeholders in LIS to assess the influence of a publication from another angle.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Changing governance patterns and CSR	[ "Corporate governance", "Governance", "Change management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: During the last years an intensive debate about CSR has taken place. This debate was fuelled by increased media interest and in Europe by a joint campaign of progressive enterprises and the European Commission[1]. Additional factors to intensify the debate were the deteriorating economic climate, after the implosion of the dotcom bubble that resulted in a sharp economic down turn particularly in the related industries and the ethical scandals of ENRON, Tyco and lately Parmalat in Europe (Van den Ven, 2003). At least the latter have proven the debate on corporate social responsibility to be timely. A lot has been written about the subject but I will try to put the discussion in a wider context.\n2. Global trends: If we look at the major trends of the last decades what do we see? Governments are becoming smaller and their direct influence is seen to be diminishing. Key notions in that context are liberalism and privatization, but also the end of communism in Eastern Europe after the fall of the iron curtain (Berend, 1996; Boissonneault, 2003)[2].Enterprises have been merging at an increasing pace and intensity, in particular in banking, automotives, pharmaceutical and many other industries including the service industry. Mergers were a result of corporate restructuring after the abolishing of state monopolies but also an answer to the increasing globalization of businesses (Sclar, 2000; Finkelstein, 1999). There are over 37.000 multinational corporations employing over 70 million worldwide (Post, 2000). This globalization was made possible by trade liberalization in general and rapid progress in technology (The Economist, 2000a, c). Even medium-sized companies and in some industries small companies went global. One of the key technical innovations was that personal computers became widely available during the 1990s and their computing power is ever increasing. Others are linked to communication.The concept of the civil society blossomed after the fall of communism (Zloch and Westport, 1994; Genov, 1999; Yoshikazu, 2001). Non-governmental organizations developed into a real force often closely linked to the media. This was particularly the case for environmental and consumer organizations that started to incorporate a global perspective in their undertakings. Media coverage, often even of the popular press has got a certain global component. Therefore citizens are being kept much more aware of international events or links. Consumers have also become more demanding. They want to reap the benefit of globalization through cheap high quality goods while at the same time feeling good about purchasing them. This means they do not want to be associated to events in the countries of production they cannot agree with like child labor and of which they are being informed about by NGOs and the media.Linked to globalization another phenomenon worth mentioning are the increasingly global capital markets. They have extraordinarily expanded not the least because of a new brand of products, the so-called derivatives. According to data from the Bank for International Settlement the $19.5 trillion market in exchange-traded derivatives increased 31 percent between 1998 and 2001, far above the growth rate of the $10 trillion US economy. More ominous is the $90 trillion market for over-the-counter derivatives, which grew 6 percent last year alone (Whalen, 2002; The Economist, 2001a, b). As a result of the explosive expansion of the capital markets, the number of players and products has increased whilst the average retention time for financial instruments including stocks has been reduced significantly. It has been said that US pension funds have reduced their average retention time from about 57 months 10 years ago to about 7 months recently[3].An important result is that the global financial sector has been increasingly characterized by short-termism. This means that companies increase their focus on short-term results as reported in quarterly presented accounts. This facilitated a predominant concentration on the shareholder perspective.And finally the world is becoming ever more diverse, complex and interlinked.\n3. Emergence of CSR: These major developments have been conducive to the existence and shape of CSR today. A lot of the debate on CSR turns around stakeholder involvement. In some sense it takes up the old debate on stakeholders versus shareholders. It centers on how businesses can, through such an intensified dialogue, become more successful in the long run and better linked and integrated into their environment. There is an argument that CSR is being used as a means to rebalance the stockholder perspective of the capital markets.It is increasingly acknowledged that the short-term focus of the investment community may curb the development opportunities of enterprises in the long term. The exclusive concentration on the bottom line has caused some businesses to disconnect from their environments. Rapid mergers and globalization have fuelled this trend and are now not always being considered a success for shareholders[4]. CSR is to some degree a counter reaction or at least embedded in one.Whatever the explanation might be such a rebalancing aspect could in any case complement the perspectives promoted by stock markets as it ensures the sustainability, including economic sustainability, of enterprises.In that sense one has to acknowledge that CSR in its European form might also be an answer to the increased Anglo-Americanization of the business environment in the 1990s[5].However, as a main focus this paper should demonstrate the importance of CSR for society at large, the public policy perspective and finally the contribution to long-term economic success of business:CSR can be viewed as a different form of corporate governance that links to a different form of public governance.\n4. Corporate governance: The European Commission and its stakeholders have embedded the concept into a very wide notion of sustainability in the economic, natural and social environment[6]. Although the regulatory framework in general in an increasingly rapid changing and complex world may be a to tight one, as enterprises complain, living CSR principles might result in public authorities even to reduce some regulation in the longer run. Governments, however, will have to resist the temptation to outsource their own responsibility[7]. The legislative framework needs to remain adequate but flexible.CSR is consequently about a change of the mindset of the economic actors and their stakeholders. There are arguments in the CSR debate that already fulfilling legal obligations is CSR, there are others that clearly ask to go beyond such legal requirements. There are also fears that CSR might lead to new legal requirements[8].But in the general debate today we have a predominant focus on how to implement CSR, to describe what it might be and entail and how we would be able to measure it[9]. These are all very important aspects but they circle somehow around the core without fully encompassing it.If CSR is also a reaction to the factors described above than it pays to try to define it somewhat closer. I would tend to argue to see in CSR a kind of new behavioral pattern of enterprises as a reaction to a changed and ever faster changing world[10]. Of course to some degree CSR is about the old discussion of stakeholders versus shareholders. But I think it is clearly more.Let's introduce an example. A multinational company that operates in developing countries must have an interest to create sustainable conditions in doing business there or in exploiting the natural resources. Most of these companies have grown - not only through the described mergers above - so big, that they are most likely here to stay for the next decades. This means these companies as organizations will be faced with the consequences of their past behavior. Management incentives have to be considered. A manager who is associated with an unsustainable but fast and lucrative deal is usually not punished in his career. Another manager will have to resolve the unsustainable situation. Since cleaning up is usually less rewarded than the quick fix this might in turn have a negative impact on his career. Such unsustainable solutions may have serious negative implications for the local community. Global media and NGOs now allow the consumer to take a stance. The reputation of the company is at stake:These long term sustainable interests of such a company may not always coincide with the short-term interests of share holders or managers, in particular in the context of today's short-term capital markets. Nevertheless without taking sustainability aspects into account even the medium-term performance may be suffering.This may be why multinational and global enterprises are strongly present in the debate today. But also small and medium-sized companies have to integrate into their environment[11]. It might look differently and is for sure less formal and organized but the end result is comparable.Now what could this difference in approach be? The speed of change or at least the perception of it appears today to be ever increasing. If this is the case, classical corporate and public governance is constantly being challenged by these ever changing conditions.In such an environment players might do better that try to reconcile their actions with the perceived needs of all concerned (including predominantly their own of course). Such behavior causes a momentary equilibrium and allows adapting the behavior in the next time interval slightly according to the changed environment[12]. It is obvious that we are not talking about philanthropy but rather at an effort to consider the impact of each action on those concerned. Such a different attitude and intent may manifest itself only in quite immaterial different actions. But on an aggregate level the impact can be substantial.Notions for this new behavior that have been introduced are among others \"adaptive management\" and the \"adaptive corporation\" (Meyer and Davis, 2003)[13]. A clear need for new, non-linear management skills is being pointed out in that context. Characteristics like empathy are being underlined.But could this not be another description of a constant and fruitful stakeholder dialogue. Important however is that there is a slightly different way of thinking and of coming to conclusions than in many current business practices. The content of the business decisions, however, will in most cases differ only marginally.Another constraint will always be that the environment becomes increasingly complex. There will always be incomplete information. Nevertheless trying to take into account different perspectives would allow generating more sustainable solutions:Increased diversity strengthens biological systems and is also considered to strengthen the capacity of an enterprise to adapt in a rapid changing environment. One might therefore even argue it might allow taking the better sustainable business decisions (Meyer and Davis, 2003; Toffler, 1984).\n5. Public governance: But how does this link to public governance? First of all public decision-making has also seen an increasing interaction with civil society and the NGO community. But the more important aspect is that public governance is also called upon to act in an ever faster changing world with less and less resources at its disposal. In addition to shrinking government there is often a \"race to the bottom\" observed with regards to tax levels in the context of globalization. This is coupled with increased tendencies of tax avoidance and tax evasions also assisted through innovation linked to technological progress.Small governments that have privatized activities have to constantly update the legal framework necessary for an increasingly complex world. Thus, the constraints of human resources and time as well as expertise are quite obvious. But there is also another aspect that we can derive by observing what happened in the new member states of the EU after the fall of the iron curtain. These countries also had to partly reconstruct their legal framework within all the above given constraints. And there we could clearly observe the time and the resources it needed to have the legal framework actually implemented by their citizens, enterprises but also their administrations and their courts. In that process the importance of voluntary compliance was stressed. As a precondition one needs to achieve \"a harmony between informal normative systems, or morality and law\" (Cepl, 2000).If we allow ourselves to consider this reference for a moment we will see the following. Legislation or any kind of regulation requires a certain stable environment. I mean it must be homogenous for a certain minimum amount of time in order to add value by providing clarity to all players concerned. If such regulation is not being applied in an even manner throughout a certain territory than it actually brakes with the spirit of law whilst keeping the impression up that it is lawful. This is actually kind of the case when laws have become utterly complex so that neither the law maker, nor the intermediary (judge or lawyer, administrator) have the capacity any more for an overview.Having considered the above we might come to the conclusion that it will be increasingly more difficult by public authorities to intervene by generally applicable rules and regulations. If this would be the case then alternative ways have to be found to come to equitable solutions everybody can live with. This leads to allow different forms of self-governance. Of course there will always be some generally applicable rules and regulations. A working paper of the European University Institute in Florence examines conditions for such Meta rules. In addition new concepts are being introduced to qualifying the notion of \"equality\" to fit such a complex and diverse world[14].We have generally only started this process in the public domain. Whilst in the context of European legislation there are some examples that might hint in this direction we are clearly only at the beginning of a long way on all levels of law making and administration[15]. An example could be the new and global approach in internal market legislation that is built on the notion of responsibility of the manufacturer and is trying to limit state intervention to a minimum. Governance in that regard is a notion that tries to signify a changed perspective and action of government taking into account more intensively and comprehensively the view of stakeholders.Nevertheless we will need additional and different ways and specific mechanisms to traditional approaches. One current example is a certain trend to replace jurisdiction by mediation, in private affairs as well as in business matters. What is the difference? The first solution is based on a historic right, the latter a process on trying to find rapidly a solution both parties can live with. So it is more open to compromise and adaptable to the circumstances of all concerned and thus a feasible answer to fast changing and complex environment. Legal trials are currently taking ever-longer time periods. Long trial periods mean that circumstances have changed which render the more flexible and more rapid tool of mediation more attractive. It has however to be noted that mediation can complement jurisdiction but probably not replace it as the ultimate recourse to law.Having established the above we can conclude. Increasing regulation combined with shrinking public services does not always guarantee their sound implementation, e.g. even handed equal treatment of different economic actors in different countries and regions. Effects of globalization and increased complexity and diversity increase this process. Often fast changing legal requirements do not add to clarity, neither on the side of economic actors nor of administrative actors or of courts. Therefore new mechanisms of regulation, implementation and conflict resolution are being thought for.\n6. Conclusions: Shrinking government in a fast changing, ever more complex and diverse world challenges and changes public mechanisms of intervention. Old style interventionist governance patterns have still to adapt to this changing environment:Nevertheless the last decades have seen both more regulation but also more freedom to business. For freedom to be sustainable it has to be matched by responsibility[16]New mechanisms of governance such as promoting non-public conflict resolution mechanisms like mediation emerge. Such mechanisms do not rely on direct state intervention but they complement and reduce the stress on the public domain. They also show how a liberal state relies on different forms of self-governance[17]. Ways are being considered how to increase the adaptability of regulation and administration.Voluntary applicable principles or rather a CSR mindset as outlined above are not able to replace compulsory regulation, but they might very well complement it and in specific cases even reduce the need for more regulation in specific areas:And most important of all CSR might stand for a mindset of constantly seeking for solutions that take all stakeholders' perception into account leading to more sustainable solutions in an economic, environmental and societal sense.Such a shift would only be rather incremental and an enterprise will always seek economic viability. However such an incremental different perspective might have quite an overall impact on an aggregated scale on the sustainability of society[18].\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The discussion around CSR has so far centered on methods and on scope rather than on the potential relevance for corporate governance and governance more general. This paper addresses this void.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - After reviewing the discussion the paper maps out the broader context of change and of global trends. Focusing on stakeholders, it explores the potential influence of CSR as a different mindset to address corporate and public governance issues.\nFindings: - An innovative approach of constantly seeking for actions that take all stakeholders' perception into account is leading to more sustainable solutions in an economic, environmental and societal sense. System analysis has shown that even incremental repetitive adaptations can strengthen a system.\nPractical implications: - The paper addresses issues relevant for corporate and public governance and could open new areas for research.\nOriginality/value: - The paper applies innovative insight from systems analysis and philosophy to CSR.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Organizational justice and managerial commitment in corporate mergers	[ "Acquisitions and mergers", "Managers", "Management attitudes", "True and fair view", "Organizational strategy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Due to globalization, technological change, and deregulation, mergers1 are increasingly being used to seek competitive advantage by combining existing companies. The degree of success or failure is usually defined in terms of shareholder value, financial performance (e.g. return on investment), resale, or expert judgments. However, studies continue to report high failure rates, ranging from 80 percent (KPMG, 2000) to 50 percent (Buono et al., 2002). Traditionally, mergers are considered to fail due to rational economic reasons (e.g. poor strategic fit), yet a recent meta-analytic study of merger performance found that the most commonly studied variables in the finance and strategy literature offered no significant explanation of merger outcomes (King et al., 2004). Human factors are therefore increasingly recognized as also playing an important role. A decrease in organizational commitment, morale and productivity are typical characteristics for both of the merging firms.The merger literature, however, is still dominated by financial and market strategists. Cartwright (2005) reported that only about 5 percent of publications listed in all the major management and psychology databases are related to the psychological aspects of mergers - and even fewer related to empirical studies. She concludes in her review that \"[...] there are still many psychological variables, such as leadership, motivation, commitment, consultation, trust, and readiness for change, which have been little investigated in M&A settings\" (p. 28).The present field study primarily addresses the frequently reported low organizational commitment of managers. We have selected managers for their peculiar \"sandwich position\": they are led and lead at the same time, thus influencing their direct reports with their personal commitment level. Research has shown that employees often react very negatively to an organizational combination (Schweiger and Denisi, 1991). The managers' commitment to the merged company might motivate themselves and their followers to develop a more positive attitude about the merger and to overcome areas of poor fit. This can lead to better performance, as Weber (1996) found in an analysis of 73 horizontal mergers that the affective commitment of acquired top managers was positively related with integration effectiveness and the acquiring firms' financial performance.This paper investigates whether the organizational commitment of managers can be explained by the degree of perceived fairness of decision outcomes (distributive justice), decision-making processes (procedural justice) and of the way managers have been treated by their leaders during the merger process (interactional justice)2. Citera and Rentsch (1993) argued that perceived justice is especially important in mergers with high levels of integration. In this common type of merger, the main strategy is to gain cost and market synergies through economies of scale and scope. Thus, redundancies in function, personnel and technical systems are generally eliminated, many work activities shared, and cultures, systems and resources integrated. Consequently, the frequency and magnitude of changes as well as the accumulation of ambiguities or uncertainties at both organizational and individual level are on average higher than in reorganizations. Mergers involve a multitude of decisions that can affect managers in various ways, ranging from staffing and compensation (e.g. career opportunities, health plans) to cultural symbols and artifacts (e.g. company name, status symbols), as well as technical systems.High integration levels usually require decisions to be made on cost and efficiency factors. For example, acquired managers might be forced to adopt the less modern technical system of the acquiring company because uniformity is needed and choosing the more innovative system of the smaller company would be too expensive. Also, many resources are of limited availability, so that negative outcomes are almost inevitable. For example, even if managers from both merging firms have performed well in the past, not all of them can keep their job or current position when redundancies have to be eliminated. However, these decisions are likely to cause managers to perceive unfairness, which might be exacerbated by the accumulation of negative outcomes due to the multitude of changes. Citera and Stuhlmacher (2001) found in a simulation study that the higher the degree of expected integration the more likely individuals were to expect more unfair and fewer fair changes to occur.In the following section, we describe in more detail the different justice dimensions and their relevance in the context of mergers. Furthermore, we analyze possible mechanisms that explain the relationship between the justice dimensions and affective commitment.\nTheoretical background and hypotheses: The organizational justice approach applied to the context of mergers\nMethod: Data collection and sample\nResults: Data screening and preparation\nDiscussion: Theoretical implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether perceptions of distributive, procedural and interactional justice can explain the frequently reported low organizational commitment of managers in corporate mergers. Specifically, it aims to examine whether each of the justice dimensions is significantly and uniquely related to affective commitment, which of the justice dimensions has the strongest relationship with the criterion, and whether instrumental evaluations or trust might function as a mediator.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A total of 128 managers from 37 companies completed a questionnaire. They had been involved in domestic or European mergers or acquisitions, which varied in the application of fairness rules.\nFindings: - Although each fairness dimension correlated positively with affective commitment, only interactional justice showed a unique relationship with it. Results indicate that both instrumental evaluations and trust can function as a mediator.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Because of the cross-sectional design, conclusions about the causal order of the variables cannot be drawn.\nPractical implications: - The authors recommend that top managers should pay extra attention to timely, candid and specific internal communication with thorough and reasonable explanation of decisions, as well as the respectful treatment of managers. Moreover, the results indicate that managers reacted positively to fairness because it conveys positive relational signals, and because one can gain personal advantages through fair outcomes and processes.\nOriginality/value: - The organizational justice approach has not yet been applied, to the authors' knowledge, in quantitative field studies of mergers. Furthermore, this paper offers a contribution to the literature on fairness heuristic theory.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A democratic story: collaboration in the use of public budget	[ "Storytelling", "Democracy", "Budgets", "Brazil", "Citizen participation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: \"I wanted to say that I don't agree with what you are saying\", was the unexpected statement made by Mrs M, an old widow and barrio representative on the participatory budget commission in a local, and needy, community in Latin America. She continued sagely: \"If we start by asphalting the streets, won't we have to dig them up again to put the sewage pipes in later?\"\nIntroduction: The above story is just one example of many conversations that are currently being held in local communities. This exchange took place on a commission of the Participatory Budget (PB) process, a phenomenon which is affecting the whole of Brazil. As researchers into processes of collaboration in this complex context, we welcome the Call for Papers for this special issue since we believe a close examination of \"storying collaboration\" can bring fruitful insights. We argue that collaboration can indeed be fostered by the way stories are told. In this particular case, many of the participants had no individual authority or formal training on cooperation, negotiation, or project management: often, all they had was stories.The present interest in issues which surround the ideas of democratic participation and collaboration is by no means accidental. Menezes (2003, p. 433) summarizes the general concern:... research on participation shows a declining tendency, mostly when it comes to traditional political organizations such as parties and unions ... (e.g. Putnam, 2001; Hahn, 1998), a phenomenon which has been related to the growing personalization of political life (Braga da Cruz, 1995), to increasing individualism in our societies (Koliba, 2000), to the privatization of social life and leisure (Putnam, 2000), and the emergence of \"market democracies\" in which citizens are more and more political consumers rather than actors (Boyte and Kari, 1996).The field of political science presents the general reasons for fostering citizens' participation and collaboration as a combination of beliefs (e.g. the belief in deliberative public governance) and/or instrumental drives (i.e. parties' own benefit). Nevertheless, the field tends to limit its attention to the theme of participation at its starting point; that is to say, it is concerned with finding the key elements that foster participation and collaboration between policymakers and citizens. We assert that the question of how such behaviors, attitudes and processes \"work\" in order to achieve the desired positive results represents an under-explored area of research.The act of participating is mainly a collaborative effort, thus leading to collaborative behavior and attitudes that can be transformed into stories. Taking the storying of collaboration as a methodology can provide empirical data, and further interpretation, in order to add to our knowledge of collaborating, whether on individual (i.e. personal relationships and intra-group), inter-group (e.g. inter-barrios) or inter-organizational levels (e.g. public and private sectors and community). This methodological approach will serve to complete a lacuna in the literature aiming to understand the complexities of stories about how and why practitioners achieve their goals. Our approach intends to tell stories that answer the following question: once the PB process starts and is accepted by the key actors as legitimate, how and why do the participants reach their outcomes through the use of stories? This question involves stories about: participant collaboration; the process of collaborative decision-making; and, the collaborative implementation of the work.Moreover, as the literature normally deals with evidences of best practice, most stories are about successful cases of trustful and transparent collaboration among different partners. Stories about best practices provide a kind of psychological permission to foster similar initiatives. Nevertheless, best practices are less reproducible than we might wish and, sometimes, to copy a best practice in a distinct context shaped by different resources and capacities can even be counter-productive. Therefore, in this paper, we make our contribution via the idea of \"storying collaboration\" in democratic participation by providing stories about successful cases. In addition, we suggest a methodology to comprehend (Verstehen) why these collaborations were, in fact, successful. This last objective is an attempt to bring awareness to the underlying assumptions and functioning of the process of \"storying collaboration\" which we hope can be used as an enabler for future research and practice.\nMethodology: In order to ground the research objectives in a coherent epistemological view and consequent methodology, it is helpful to consider how stories, narratives and/or discourses have been analysed in the social sciences. There have been a variety of approaches, but at the epistemological level, these approaches rely basically on a positivist, in which stories are taken as acts of speech (e.g. Van Dijk, 1981, pp. 214-41); a hermeneutical; or, a critical view of the social sciences. As our objectives belong to the realm of comprehension, we prefer to avoid the positivist perspective which is better applied when explanation (Erklaren) is intended. Thus, in this methodological discussion, which is key to outlining our approach to storying collaboration, we will begin by considering the hermeneutical school of philosophy.Our first methodological approach: hermeneutics\nFindings: storying collaboration in democratic participation: Our study reveals that storytelling has a fundamental role in PB processes. The most talked about PB initiative in Brazil started almost two decades ago, meaning that initial participants had no prior experience of the vicissitudes of collaborative problem solving. Thus, stories about the future started to be constructed. The rhetorical strategy was to persuade people by using visionary stories of a better future. They were causal stories of the type \"If we do ... then we will ... \" and they were based on enthusiastic promises. Nowadays, stories about the future still persist because every PB case has its own particularities, but there are also past stories of the type \"Look at what we (or they) did in the past, and today we ... \"; and present comparative stories like \"The commission of barrio X are doing ... \".The quality of the results of the PB process was completely unexpected. To mention a few: first, it has revived citizenship engagement, which is a devalued political act in this geographical zone (Baiocchi, 2001). Second, it has fostered a collaborative search for how to make the best use of restricted resources. Working teams consisting of members of the various partners (e.g. local public authorities, citizen representatives and company technicians who build the projects) are the practical setting where optimization and continuous improvement take place. Third, the level of transparency reached has reduced suppliers' historical overpricing because payment is now guaranteed to be on time and because old suppliers' have lost their public administration \"networks\". Fourth, as the work is done in the barrio itself, the quality control and planning commission is quick to spot any anomalies, either by direct observation, or because they are reported by a local resident or a supplier's employee, who is also a barrio resident. We will now illustrate some of these achievements and analyse their stories using the combined methodology described.Practising democracy\nDiscussion and implications: Our research suggests that stories, along with other components of the collaborative process, serve as instruments to develop a collaborative attitude amongst a variety of participants, with local development being their ultimate outcome. We have found that in the PB process, face-to-face discussions of conflicting perceptions have permitted policymakers and public servants to reinterpret their definitions of efficiency and duty. Local communities have embraced a participant and collaborative attitude dignifying their role as citizens. Companies have optimized costs and quality of the services provided. We argue, however, that holding up a rhetorical flag of \"collaboration\" as a taken-for-granted banner indicating a magical pathway to success, does not necessarily lead to desired results. The integrated methodology we have adopted in this study indicates that policy makers must not neglect a number of other considerations.Our hermeneutical analysis reveals that some key conditions exist in the contexts in which stories about collaboration are built. An immediate implication regards the need to create \"good\" (i.e. appropriate) environments from which individuals become aware of their wishes and demands and make conscious choices. The process of storying collaboration starts if trust, fairness and respect are present. This permits constructive interactions and dialogues. From these appropriate conditions, supportive sub-processes like training, scheduling and auditing can begin.Deconstruction of participants' speech identifies how the rhetorical dimension of stories persuades individuals to undertake collaborative decision-making and implementation of development work. The actors involved can be made aware of the components of rhetorical speech and, respecting the key conditions for collaboration outlined in the preceding paragraph, use them to persuade others. This can be especially important to representatives of communities such as barrios for whom stories may form a significant part of their available social capital.Critical analysis adds a further element to what has been contextually constructed. This is the comprehension of what is legitimate in social action and bio-psychology a priori the subjective component of the individual's objective relation with his/her reality and with others. The analytical procedure takes what is legitimate initially as conjectures (i.e. as taken-for-granted beliefs) and \"verified\" in the findings if these conjectures are reasonable; and, if so, gives them the status of \"stronger\" conjectures (Lorenz, 1988, p. 88). We can observe that the meaning-making process (e.g. persuasive arguments about the \"rightness\" of decisions and decision-making in the social interest and with a sense of responsibility) present in the construction of the ethos, logos and resultant pathos of the PB-related stories in our study strongly reflect these characteristics. The main gain to the storytellers who collaborate in the process is the possibility of actualizing their potentialities. The findings imply that any storyteller must take into consideration which kind of assumptions, intentions and orientations best reflect individual and social legitimacy and, thus, are most likely to succeed.Finally, we posit that it is possible to characterise the variety of social processes at work in this challenging context as a \"conversion process\" of storying collaboration. This seems to reveal a circular sequence of ideals, acts and outcomes in which stories about the future became realities and realities became new stories. An awareness of this mechanism by all potential participants may well be key to facilitating further success in developmental policies such as the Brazilian PB process.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the notion of \"storying collaboration\" can benefit democratic participation, collaboration among different social actors, and local development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The methodology relies initially on a hermeneutical epistemological view which also incorporates Aristotelian analysis of speech as a deconstructive tool. Initial findings suggest a further shift in approach towards the assumptions made by critical theory. The basic methodological tool is in-depth interviews. The level of analysis is the individual who participates in collaborative processes.\nFindings: - The paper shows how collaboration is unlikely to be successful in situations where certain key conditions are absent. Ultimately, what may be seen as a conversion process reveals a circular sequence of ideals, acts and outcomes in which stories about the future become realities and realities become new stories.\nPractical implications: - The findings suggest that the creation of appropriate environments is required in order for individuals to become aware of their wishes and demands and make conscious choices. If the actors involved are aware of the rhetorical components of speech, then they can utilise them to persuade others. The storyteller must take into consideration which kind of assumptions, intentions and orientations respect individual and social notions of legitimacy and, thus, are likely to succeed.\nOriginality/value: - The originality of the paper lies in the use of a bricolage of methodologies in order to shed light on the role of stories in the collaborative process.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Sales effort deployment in decentralized dual-channel distribution	[ "Game theory", "Channel preference", "Customer’s valuation", "Dual-channel distribution", "Sales effort" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With highly securitized online payment supported by financial institutions and low-cost delivery service provided by the third-party logistics, an increasing number of consumers are beginning to shop online. It leads to the fact that B2C e-commerce has grown into an important part of the retail industry. On the one hand, the B2C e-commerce sales worldwide reached 1,233 billion US dollars in 2013. Moreover, the global B2C e-commerce sales is forecasted to be 2,356 billion US dollars in the next five years (Statista, 2015). On the other hand, the B2C e-commerce sales as a percentage of global gross domestic product (GDP) has steadily increased since 2009 and reached 0.92 percent of global GDP in 2013. It is expected to rise continuously to 1.61 percent in 2018 (Statista, 2015). In this case, a number of manufacturers adopted the dual-channel distribution strategy, such as Nike and IBM.\n2. Literature review: There have been many previous research studies that discussed dual-channel distribution with respect to pricing, channel conflict and channel coordination.\n3. Demand in the dual-channel distribution: In this section, a model of customer' choice under sales efforts is introduced based on the customer's valuation of the product and customer's channel preference to determine the demand in each channel. We assume customers purchase the product with positive utility. Furthermore, a consumer will make the transaction based on the channel that gives higher expected utility. Then, the demand of the retail channel and the direct channel can be determined.\n4. Sales effort deployment in dual-channel distribution: In this part, a decentralized dual-channel distribution is modeled. The price of a product is p in both the retail channel and the direct channel (online). The average cost of the product is c for the manufacturer. The manufacturer offers a wholesale price o to the retailer for every single product. Since the retailer is independent of the manufacturer, a sale effort setting game between the manufacturer and the retailer is formed. The objective of the manufacturer and the retailer is to maximize their profits by deploying sales effort independently. We assume the manufacturer and the retailer share common knowledge about the demand of both the direct channel online and the retail channel. The structure of model is shown in Figure 2.\n5. Numerical example: In this section, a numerical example of sales effort deployment is demonstrated. We assume the consumers' valuation distribution is a standard lognormal distribution with total 10,000 consumers. The lognormal distribution is the distribution Y=ln(X), where X is a standard normal distribution. The probability distribution function and cumulative distribution fit our assumption about the consumer valuation distribution (Equations (1)-(5)). The price of a product is set as US$5 in both the direct channel online and the retail channel. The manufacturer offers a wholesale price of US$4.5 to the partner retailer. The manufacturer's average cost of the product is US$4. For the consumers, the accessing cost of the retail channel is US$0.6 while the access cost of direct channel (online store) is US$0.1. At the same time, the retailer's sales effort rate is 0.1 while the sales effort' cost of the manufacturer is 0.2.\n6. Conclusions: Once a decentralized dual-channel distribution is constructed, how much sales effort should be made from each channel for marketing? This research determined the optimal sales effort of the direct channel and the retail channel based on the demand forecasting by the expected utility of the consumers. It shows that the channel preference of the consumers is the key parameter for the demand distribution in dual-channel situation. There will be demand in both channels even though consumers may slightly prefer the retail channel rather than the direct channel. Otherwise, all consumers will purchase through direct channel if consumers prefer direct channel than retail channel.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine the optimal sale effort deployment under dual-channel distribution which combines a traditional brick and mortar retail channel from the partner retailer and an online direct channel from the manufacturer.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A sales effort competition game is set up in the dual-channel distribution between the manufacturer and the retailer. Demand under sales efforts is determined based on the consumer valuation, consumer's channel preference and sales efforts. Then, the optimal sales effort deployment is studied with a game theory approach which allow the retailer and the manufacturer to maximize their own profit.\nFindings: Consumer's channel preference is a key parameter of the demand assignment in the dual-channel distribution. Interestingly, the optimal sales effort and the profit of the manufacturer and the retailer can be limited by the other's efficiency of sales effort. The finding suggests that the manufacturer and the retailer should collaborate to enhance the efficiency of the sales effort. It also shows that the manufacturer can utilize the direct channel as an important marketing channel even though no profit is obtained through the direct channel.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research provides a new method to model the sales effort in the dual-channel distribution. The optimal sales efforts based on the consumer behavior are determined. However, since this study assumes a consistent product price across channels, the results is not applicable for a retailer who can set their own price.\nPractical implications: It is a win-win situation for adoption of the dual-channel distribution although the manufacturer can benefit more. Additionally, direct channel can be used as an effective marketing channel.\nOriginality/value: This research contributes to a better understanding of demands in dual-channel distribution under sales efforts. Additionally, the research results provide a useful framework of sales effort deployment under different consumers' channel preferences in the dual-channel distribution.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An empirically-grounded study on the effective use of social software in education	[ "Social interaction", "Case studies", "Internet", "Education" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Social software is a class of networked tools that support and encourage individuals to learn together while retaining individual control over their time, space, presence, activity, identity and relationship (Anderson, 2005). Social networking web sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube are examples of some of the tools that are being used to share and collaborate in educational, social, and business contexts. The key aspect of a social software tool is that it involves wider participation in the creation of information, which is shared (Franklin and van Harmelen, 2007; Leslie and Landon, 2007).Social software enables communication and networking between groups where the members are made aware of what other groups are doing, and where each member of the group benefits. Further, social software allows gathering and sharing resources to inform others and receive feedback.For example, consider the social bookmarking site Delicious (http://delicious.com/). For my research on social software tools, I can save bookmarks in my Delicious account, and through the tags or keywords that I assign to individual resources, users with similar research interests can access my bookmarks and perhaps find them useful; I can create networks within Delicious where I can link up with users who are also conducting research in social software. So in addition, to my own library of bookmarks, I also have access to a network of colleagues and their bookmarks who are also interested in social software tools.Educational institutions are increasingly making use of (see Leslie and Landon, 2007):* Tools that facilitate collaborative authoring, such as blogs and wikis.* Web sites that enable sharing of bookmarks, photographs, and videos, such as Delicious, Flickr and YouTube.* Social networking platforms such as Elgg and Ning.* 3-D virtual worlds, such as Second Life that facilitate synchronous group discussions and meetings (see Eschenbrenner et al., 2008).These, and other social software tools, are of increasing interest in education, but need to be well grounded within the pedagogical activities of courses. The published research so far has tended to focus on the use of forums, blogs and wikis (e.g. Minocha and Roberts, 2008; and Williams and Jacobs, 2004), rather than extending to encompass other social software. Furthermore, there are few guidelines for good pedagogical practice or assessments of the effectiveness of the different social software tools. Thus, it appeared that studies were needed which determined:* How activities can be designed to include social software tools.* The benefits and problems associated with their use.* The role of these tools in enhancing the learning and teaching experience.Therefore, in our JISC1-funded project (http://tinyurl.com/5a8zu3), we set out to: identify situations (as case studies) where social software tools had been employed in further and higher education; collect information about the experiences of the staff and students involved; and analyse that information to discover the benefits, problems and issues (and their resolutions) associated with the use of social software.In this paper, we discuss the methodology we employed, the key findings from our project, and some recommendations for educators who are planning to adopt social software in learning and teaching. We conclude this paper by discussing the implications of our project and how the research discussed in this paper and related to investigating the effectiveness of social software in education can be taken forward.\nMethodology: We employed a case study methodology to collect data from 26 case studies or initiatives in further and higher education, where social software tools have been employed.Case study methodology\nKey findings: We have drawn out some key findings from our case study investigations. In this section, we discuss these findings, which relate to the benefits and challenges that organisations (policy makers), educators, and students will experience in a social software initiative.Benefits to the organisations\nRecommendations for educators: There are wide-ranging factors that influence the success of a social software initiative. Therefore, there are no set procedures or guidelines that, if followed, will guarantee the success of a social software initiative. In this section, we outline principles, which we believe will apply to an initiative and will guide educators.Be learner-centred\nImplications: Our research and set of case studies (available at: http://tinyurl.com/5a8zu3) have helped to bring together experiences with social software of several colleagues in the higher and further education institutions in the UK. We are hopeful that their stories, experiences and inputs will guide and inspire colleagues within the educational community who are interested in adopting social software in learning and teaching.A comparison of the literature review and findings of the study is presented in this section. Then, we discuss the limitations of the study and propose solutions for overcoming those limitations to take this work forward. We also propose some ideas for using social software tools for involving the community in sharing experiences and case studies.Comparison of the literature review with the findings of this study\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to discuss the results of an empirical investigation of the effective use of social software in further and higher education. The aims of the research are to: identify situations where social software tools had been employed in learning and teaching; elicit the experiences of the staff and students; and to draw out the benefits, challenges and issues (and their resolutions) associated with the use of social software.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In the empirical study, data from 26 initiatives, where social software tools have been employed, were collected, analysed and synthesised. A case study methodology was followed and both educators and students were interviewed to find out what they had done, how well it had worked, and what they had learned from the experiences.\nFindings: - This study provides insights about the benefits to the students, educators and institutions; challenges that may influence a social software initiative; and issues that need to be considered in a social software initiative.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The data analysis in this project has been qualitative. In future research, it would be useful to obtain quantitative evidence relating to the effectiveness of the use of social software. Such evidence would be of considerable assistance to institutional policy makers. The case studies in the project are snapshots of the current situation. It would be useful to carry out longitudinal studies over a period of time to investigate the sustainability of the individual initiatives.\nPractical implications: - It is hoped that the lessons captured in this paper will inform the learning and teaching strategies in higher and further education - specifically, assisting the institutions and educators who are considering the use of social software, or more generally, people or organisations undertaking technology-enabled learning and teaching initiatives.\nOriginality/value: - The published research so far has tended to focus on the use of forums, blogs and wikis, rather than extending to encompass other social software. Furthermore, the literature discusses experiences of individual educators and with a small set of students. The project reported in this paper examined data from 26 initiatives from a varierty of institutions, involving a wide range of social software tools, and in diverse contexts.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Need for sustainable global business model in software outsourcing: The Indian perspective	[ "Software", "Outsourcing", "Indian vendors", "Global clients", "Sustainable model", "India", "Sustainable development" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Information technology (IT) is essentially a tool to manipulate flow of information in business system. By definition a business system is an open system which works towards an objective, has porous boundaries and subsystems (Khurana and Mandke, 2009) IT provides automation in commands, quick communication, reporting and control mechanisms which in turn is used to plan, develop and implement systems in business. The IT industry came into existence in 1950s (Mekikian and Roberts, 2009a, b), with IBM introducing the first largest computer IBM 701. With the growth in need of IT services across the globe, various companies have started venturing away from self sufficiency in their way of conducting business to identifying specific processes that can be developed by some other company in order to reduce costs and focus on their core business (Niehaves and Plattfaut, 2011). Software outsourcing roots can be traced to Porter's (2001) theory where he states that the strength of a firm can be based on advantage in cost and the way it can differentiate itself in the market. Globalization helped in expansion of international trade which eventually led to outsourcing (Blaskovich and Mintchik, 2011). Kodak's was one of the first companies to outsource to IBM in 1989 (Jenster and Pedersen, 2000). Every industry has been impacted by outsourcing in both positive ways and with caveats (Niehaves and Plattfaut, 2011). The global business in IT services industry was initiated with client server computing, to resolving the year 2000 problem, to the internet revolution and then Web 2.0 (Mekikian and Roberts, 2009a, b) and now Web 3.0. The population of India which consisted of resources that were cheap (Sparrow, 2009) but very competent, along with the liberalization and changes w.r.t. piracy policy attracted companies from across the globe to start operations in India (Mekikian and Roberts, 2009a, b).As this trend is growing there are various types of outsourcing delivery models developed for a company to choose from, based on internal business strategies. The currently identified models have their pros and cons and there is room for more models with outsourcing processes that cater to the various dimensions of outsourcing (Espinosa et al., 2007a, b; Carmel et al., 2009).This study is about understanding software outsourcing in IT primarily from the global client and Indian vendor's perspective; to develop a model that Indian vendors can use for maintaining sustainable client vendor relationships in the midst of global competition. Considering the competition India faces with countries like China, Russia, etc. (Espinosa et al., 2007a, b), it is important for India to manage sustainability even though it still has \"competitive advantages\" like educated workforce, quality focused processes, etc. (Espinosa et al., 2007a, b).\n2 Literature survey: 2.1 IT outsourcing\n3 Business models in global software outsourcing: The choice of outsourcing models is also increasing with growth in IT services and outsourcing.Sparrow (2009), Espinosa et al. (2006) and Youngdahl et al. (2010) has listed delivery models which are:* Retain service responsibility. In this model the company retains its responsibility of creating, maintaining and executing IT services, and fulfills the same by either having global IT departments, acquiring companies or setting up captive centers to do the internal service automation.* Shared responsibility. In this model the company shares the responsibility of creating, maintaining and executing IT services through either strategic alliances or joint ventures.* Transferred to external service provider. In this model the responsibility of creating, maintaining and executing IT services is transferred to outsourcing companies. These companies then adopt the role of vendors and provide services to the clients. These vendors could be onshore or offshore from the client perspective.The business models taking the price perspective are as follows (Mekikian and Roberts, 2009a, b):* Time and money (T&M). The clients pay on per hour and per resource basis. The work being delivered by the vendor's resource should be in a measurable form such as code development, code maintenance, testing, design, requirements elicitation, etc.* Fixed price (FP). Here the price and time are fixed and the model guarantees deliveries on time and within predefined budget. The work being delivered by the clients could be the same as time and money.3.1 An analysis\n4 Needs for sustainable software outsourcing models: (a) Need for sustainable outsourcing models\n5 Implications of this research: The paper presented above is a literature review paper; it identifies the need for sustainability in the software outsourcing models adopted by Indian vendors for the global clients. The paper bridges the gap between theory and practice by relating the practitioner models adopted to the theoretical models and analyzing the same. The analysis has culminated into a need for sustainability in the models being used by Indian vendors for the global clients. Once this need is fulfilled it will have an economic and commercial impact in terms of sustained business opportunities in Indian software outsourcing sectors. The sustainability of business definitely will have a visible social impression on the lives and life styles of people involved in this business.The research presented above also will have a significant bearing on teaching in graduate and business schools as these are the institutions where engineers and managers are groomed and they should be aware of the contemporary business situations, issues, needs and possible solutions.Additionally the identification of need of sustainability in the software outsourcing business should ideally be recognized by the Indian Government and this should lead to formulation of public policy norms and regulatory procedures for complementing sustainability in software outsourcing business.The paper also contributes to the body of knowledge by uniquely identifying the need for sustainable structure in the business models adopted by Indian vendors in software outsourcing.\n6 Further research direction: The paper above presents extensive literature survey on software outsourcing models in global business with a special reference to Indian vendors. Breaks in the structures of these models have been analytically identified and need for a sustainable model has been suggested. Further research direction is to formulate hypothesis. On the basis hypothesis, questionnaire can be generated and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis can be carried out to actually identify the factors necessary to create a sustainable global business model in outsourcing.\n7 Conclusion and research limitations: This research paper is a literature survey paper which studies the software outsourcing industry with special focus on sustainability of Indian vendors in software outsourcing business. Models like retaining software services in-house, shared responsibility, transferring to external vendors and also money based models namely T&M and FP have been studied analytically both in theory and practice. Both the client and vendor perspectives have been studied vis-a-vis adoption of the work in software development life cycle phases, distribution of work in off shore and onshore, aligning of the vendor with the client organization, cultural differences, time zone differences, extraneous costs, geopolitical stability, government contribution, visa regulations, investments and risks, communication and knowledge sharing, quality and security of service. The study has been able to bridge the theoretical and practical divide in the business of software outsourcing and identify the need for sustainability in the business of software outsourcing models adopted by Indian vendors. The fulfilling of this need will lead to long term economic, commercial and social impact. Also it is an indication to the Indian Government to create policy and regulatory environment for aiding the sustainability of Indian vendors in the business of software outsourcing.Major research limitation identified is that the study is limited to identification of need and has been done with an Indian vendor perspective, the study can be extended to global vendors, and the perspectives can be compared and contrasted across the globe.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to study sustainability of the global business model of software outsourcing with perspective of Indian vendors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In order to obtain results as per the stated purpose, the authors have done an extensive literature review search in the e-journals databases: ABI/INFORM Complete, EBSCO Business Source Complete, Emerald Management Xtra and Science Direct. Over and above these databases and journals, NASSCOM reports, survey and some books were also referred for literature review. Finally 59 references listed at the end of the paper were used for the stated purpose.\nFindings: - The paper studies trends in software industry and outsourcing models, which Indian vendors are offering to their global clients. Each model is evaluated analytically for its advantages and shortcomings subsequently the paper concludes by stating the need for a sustainable global business model in software outsourcing from Indian perspective.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper studies business of software at a global level and subsequently narrows its focus on the models being provided by the Indian vendors. It identifies need for a sustainable model to be used by the Indian vendors; the limitation of the paper is it concludes with the need identification and is from an Indian vendor perspective. The needs identified can be further used as a basis for hypothesis formulation, questionnaire design, data survey and analysis so that blue print of the proposed model can finally emerge, also the study can be expanded to include global vendors.\nPractical implications: - The following paper analytically studies current trends in global business of software sourcing, and identifies pros and cons of the models adopted by Indian vendors. It identifies the need for a sustainable global business model for software outsourcing; in case the need is fulfilled it will definitely add value to India as a software sourcing destination and lead to more revenue generation which will eventually culminate into a large-scale and long term economic and social impact. The study also has several research and public policy formulation implications.\nOriginality/value: - The paper is completely original work of the authors where the value addition is clearly seen by studying the advantages and shortcomings of the existing models of software outsourcing adopted by Indian vendors and identifying the need for sustainability therein.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Intention to leave among bullied university personnel	[ "Faculty", "Workplace bullying", "University", "Bullying", "Inappropriate behaviour", "Working environment" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Bullying is usually defined as frequent, evolving and often escalating negative acts (behaviour) that the target does not welcome and that take place over a relatively long period of time. On the other hand, a single incident can also be very harmful for the victim. With its potentially worldwide, uncontrollable spread, cyberbullying is a rapidly growing form of such bullying (Beran and Li, 2007; O'Moore, 2012). A simple distinction exists between direct actions, such as accusations, verbal abuse and public humiliation, on the one hand, and indirect acts of aggression, such as rumours, gossip and social isolation, on the other (Einarsen et al., 2009). Bullying is also defined as aggressive goal-directed behaviour perpetrated by one or more individuals. Due to a power imbalance, victims often feel unable to defend themselves in the situation (Volk et al., 2014).\nThe nature of the relationship between bullying, the environment and intention to leave: Workplace bullying is an occurrence that increases employees' intentions to leave the organisation (e.g. Berthelsen et al., 2011; Nielsen and Einarsen, 2012; Hollis, 2015) or the whole profession (Laschinger and Fida, 2014) and raises the risk of expulsion from working life altogether (Glambek et al., 2015). The effect of bullying on intention to leave is mediated by different factors, such as lowered job satisfaction (Glaso, Bele, Nielsen and Einarsen, 2011; Yapici Akar et al., 2011), lowered job engagement (Glaso, Bele, Nielsen and Einarsen, 2011; Coetzee and van Dyk, 2018), the victim's own emotions and negative affections (Djurkovic et al., 2004; Glaso, Vie, Holmdal and Einarsen, 2011; Glaso and Notelaers, 2012), job insecurity (Glambek et al., 2014), affective commitment (McCormack, et al., 2009) and basic psychological needs (Trepanier et al., 2015; Coetzee and Oosthuizen, 2017). However, bullying also has a strong direct effect on intention to leave (McCormack et al., 2009; Glaso, Vie, Holmdal and Einarsen, 2011). Based on the theoretical overview above, the first hypothesis is presented as follows:\nMethod: Data were collected using a questionnaire. A private e-mail with a link to the questionnaire was sent to all staff members across nine large-scale public universities (n=3,756) in the Spring of 2014.\nResults: Intention to leave the workplace among bullied university personnel in Estonia\nDiscussion: The present results show that more than one third (38 per cent) of Estonian academe considered quitting their job at least sometimes during the last six months in the Spring of 2014. In relation to any organisation, the total number of employees considering leaving their workplace is high.\nConclusions: In relation to any organisation, the total number of employees considering leaving their work in Estonian academe is high. The situation described in this paper may reflect the present economic situation of the universities, which diminishes social support, increases competition, augments job stress and impairs employees' mental health (Giorgi et al., 2015). All this may lead to a bullying culture and an unpleasant working atmosphere, and further to leaving the workplace, alongside reduced motivation, engagement and performance, and increased absence. Nevertheless, in the current age, which greatly encourages international academic mobility, leaving is even easier than before. That is why academia cannot afford to ignore this problem.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reveal the degree of intention to leave and the relation between bullying and intention to leave, as well as the relation between features of the working environment and intention to leave among Estonian university personnel.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 864 faculty members from nine Estonian universities answered the e-mail questionnaire in the Spring of 2014. The nature of bullying was measured with the help of the Negative Acts Questionnaire. The Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire was applied in a survey of characteristics of the work environment. The relations were analysed with the help of structural equation modelling.\nFindings: More than one third of the respondents had considered quitting sometimes, quite often, or very often. The results show that perceived bullying is a predictor of intention to leave, whereas a favourable working environment prevents quitting.\nResearch limitations/implications: The present results can be utilised from at least three perspectives: cultural and institutional studies, leadership practices and personal work control.\nPractical implications: Knowing the characteristics of bullying helps in recognising and preventing bullying and aids in improving the working atmosphere at universities.\nOriginality/value: This study revealed that besides directly, bullying is related to explained intention to leave indirectly, mediated by (negative) work environment perceptions. This indicates that bullying gives rise to an unfavourable working atmosphere and further to intention to leave.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Cronyism as an outcome of institutional settings: the case of pre-2011 Egypt	[ "Egypt", "Governance", "Institutions", "Lobbying", "Cronyism", "State business relations" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In January 2011, at the iconic Tahrir Square, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians were chanting their calls for the fall of the regime. One of the major causes of such widespread public discontent was the infamous web of state business networks (SBN) involving key state officials and influential business persons and the resulting high observed levels of cronyism. While the effect of these close state business relations (SBR) on pre-2011 Egypt's economic growth has been debated in the literature (see Abdel Latif and Schmitz, 2010; Loewe, 2013), hardly much doubt was raised on their resulting deep-rooted crony relations (see Adly, 2013; Diwan, 2012; Diwan et al., 2014; Francis et al., 2018).\n2. Theoretical discussion: 2.1 SBR, cronyism and lobbying\n3. The model: The following game theoretical model depends on the previous theoretical discussion. For simplicity, the game considered here is a static one, where the considered variables, payoffs and strategies are being decided at each period independent from previous periods.\n4. Discussion: the Egyptian case: 4.1 Overview: SBR and cronyism in Egypt\n5. Conclusion: This paper has argued that the high levels of cronyism witnessed in pre-2011 Egypt were the outcome of institutional settings shaping SBR in Egypt. Namely, these were: the presence of a powerful state; a weak and dependent private sector unable to aggregate its power and lobby; the low performance in major governance indicators; regime legitimization through high levels of consumer subsidies; and economic growth caused by an increase in government resources rather than governance institutional improvement. The Egyptian case study provided evidence for the theoretical analysis presented earlier in the paper, including the game theoretical model. Given Egypt's institutional settings, the probability of lobbying should be expected to have been very low and cronyism seemed to be the best strategy for any informally connected businessperson. Those unconnected, on the other hand, were denied from having an adequate share of valuable resources, whether subsidies, credit or suitable regulations boosting their competitiveness.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Why are state business relations in Egypt characterized by widely acknowledged high levels of cronyism? The purpose of this paper is to investigate the institutional factors explaining this research question with a focus on pre-2011 Egypt.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on a general theoretical discussion, certain institutions were proposed as being responsible. A game theoretical model is then introduced. It explains why cronyism was the best strategy for various business players in contrast to aggregating and lobbying their efforts to obtain government available resources, whether these resources are energy subsidies, public banks' credit or regulations. Then pre-2011 Egypt is discussed as a case study. This discussion is enriched by the available literature and empirical data.\nFindings: Choosing cronyism was attributed to the presence of a weak and dependent private sector, where businesspeople are unable to aggregate their power; a relatively stronger government; poor governance performance; higher levels of regime legitimization practices, such as providing generous consumer subsidies; and economic growth caused by an increase in resources rather than by governance institutional improvement. A discussion of the available literature and empirical data on pre-2011 Egypt, going over the various proposed institutional factors, helped to support these arguments.\nResearch limitations/implications: Further empirical evidence is needed to support and modify the suggestions of this paper. More detailed indicators would have further helped this research. Moreover, more case studies, other than the case of pre-2011 Egypt, are also needed. It is hoped that this paper would encourage further research endeavors that would cover these limitations.\nPractical implications: Governance institutional reform is needed to minimize cronyism, especially institutions such as voice and accountability, rule of law, regulatory quality and control of corruption.\nSocial implications: This paper can explain why high levels of cronyism are witnessed in many countries of the world, including the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The region shares many institutional factors with Egypt. Governments in the MENA region have various sources of power with regard to their dependent private sectors added to the general poor performance in various governance indicators in the region.\nOriginality/value: The deep analysis conducted in this paper for the causes of Cronyism in Egypt has not been done elsewhere. This is also true for the whole MENA region. The introduced theoretical model is the first trial of this sort and should be important for future works on this topic in the MENA region and developing countries.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Training to survive the workplace of today	[ "Stress", "Business excellence", "Training" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nToday's workplace: With the increase of bankruptcies, debts, redundancies, layoffs and closures, the corporate climate has never before been more exposed to the pace, change and pressure that now exists in the work place. The technological revolution of the last three decades has changed the workplace beyond all recognition. From faxes, photocopiers, printers, PCs, mobile phones, e-mails, blogging, twitching, laptops, hot zones, hot spots and blackberries the way in which we do business is now constant and unforgiving. No longer can you leave your work in the workplace, you can now be contacted 24/7. No longer can you switch off to recharge, as your blackberry bleeps, a text arrives on your mobile or an e-mail wings it way toward your laptop on the internet highway! The \"Crackberry\" generation is here with their addition to always being in touch via e-mails, mobiles and texts.In the past when technology first reared its head into the corporate world it was thought to be a revolutionary tool to reduce strain and aid us in progressive business. Somewhere we have lost sight of this, because as the technological changes have increased in pace and momentum we, in the corporate world, are now constantly trying to keep up with the speed of this change. In the first quarter of 2005, sales of the Blackberry increased by 75 percent. During the three months leading up to June 2007, 2.4 million BlackBerrys were shipped, double that of 2006, and added 1.2 million subscriber accounts for the handheld device, taking the total number to over nine million. Sales of the iphone are astonishing. The quarterly iPhone units sold in 2009 were 4,363,000, representing 88 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.\nInformation overload: No sooner do we upgrade our hardware/software, than newer, faster, systems are available. This is great if the pace and the work processes are managed, but with the competition in the market place constantly driving us to work faster and harder, the speed of change and technology start to manage us and we as humans are the sufferers. The data which continually bombard our already numbed gray matter is rapidly increasing on a day-by-day basis. There is now research to suggest that this \"information overload\" is starting to outpace our brains processing ability and that this information overload may be the cause of increased stress levels, anxiety and depression.Our interpersonal skills start to diminish, our \"down time\" reduces, our resilience is lessened and our tolerance is regularly tested ... . our lives are becoming exposed to more and more stressors and ill health and wellbeing. In 2008/2009 an estimated 415,000 individuals in Britain, who worked in the last year, believed that they were experiencing work-related stress at a level that was making them ill. There were over 30 million days lost at work due to ill health in 2007! The Health and Safety Executive reports that stress, depression or anxiety were the largest contributor to the overall estimated annual days lost from work-related ill-health in 2008/2009.\nA story of today's reality!: Let us look at a day in the life of ...An important business meeting is planned for first thing the following morning. On arising the following day you feel refreshed and excited ready for the challenging day ahead. Unfortunately unaware that your car was borrowed the previous night by your son, you jump in; start the engine, only to notice that you do not have enough petrol to get to work! You speed off to the nearest garage and fill up, and, looking at your watch anxiously, you realize you still might just be able to make the meeting on time.Now, unfortunately, slightly late, you hit a little more traffic than expected which delays you more. You glance again at your watch and realize with regret, anxiety and now physical tension, you will not be there at the start of the meeting. Pressure is mounting. Your refreshed, clear headed mood starts to turn to one of irritation and apprehension. On arrival at the office someone needs to speak to you about something they consider to be urgent! Your mood now constantly changing, you start to spiral downwards and as the day continues, little things become big issues. You are, for the rest of the day trying to catch up with time as your positive mood changes to one of intolerance and frustration ... You start to see things only in the negative, rather than the positive frame. What effect does your mood now have on others? Do you and those around you have a happy, healthy and productive day?This, or similar downward daily spirals are becoming more common place at both work and home as there always seems to be more to do, with less time to do it in, as we are facilitated by fast moving technology.The need for self-control and resilience in the workplace has never been of more importance. Change is constant and all around us. The pace, pressure and expectation in the workplace is ever increasing. Tools for managing in the workplace have never been more urgently needed than right now.Surviving and flourishing in the pressuring environment of the new millennium calls for knowing how to respond and transform intolerance, negativity and stress effectively, into motivation, challenge and a thirst for learning and development. Everybody experiences challenges and disappointments; it is not possible to move forward without them. It is, however, the way in which we respond to these setbacks that separate the resilient people from those who are intolerant and stressed. Resilience is the ability to control or improve your performance when you are surrounded by adverse circumstances. The key is to harness a positive attitude and behavior which, will in turn, energize you and the people around you to achieve and see a way forward when circumstances could potentially pull you down into \"the negative spiral\".\nResilience and positive attitude: Resilient managers will be able to improve performance and stamina during periods of high demands; they can see opportunities in change. Challenges are welcomed as new opportunities; they will grow and develop, rather than seeing change as a threat. Individuals can influence events and have a strong sense of self-achievement and effectiveness, as opposed to feeling that they are a victim of circumstance. They live in the \"cause\" side of the equation rather than in the \"effect\". These are the leaders who cause positive things to happen all around them, rather than perceiving that they are always \"affected\" by external events they cannot control and which drag them down. Managers who have this strong sense of commitment and are fully involved, are unlikely to be de-motivated by the day-to-day stressors which arise unexpectedly. These are the qualities required in the workplace of today, which will enhance corporate performance and boost the morale of others. These are the people who inspire and lead others to achieve. These are the leaders of the future.Enthusiasm, motivation and resilience are the key to a happy, healthy workforce, thus leading to reduced stress and business excellence.Yet the reality for many organizations it is that staff remain undervalued, under trained, poorly motivated and poorly managed - leading them to perform well below their capability.The corporate pace facing organizations today has never been greater. Organizations must absorb and manage these cultural and technological changes at a much faster rate than in the past. In order to implement a positive business strategy to face this challenge, we must ensure that we have an optimistic, well-motivated workforce, capable of delivering a successful strategy which energizes and inspires us all.To reap success and provide a stimulating healthy working environment companies must:Improve management and or leadership training, coaching and mentoring which focuses thoughts on positive communication and inspirational staff management, remember being positive attracts positive, being negative breeds a virus of negativity and stress.Create a place of work where employee health and their welfare are foremost on the corporate agenda, invest in your staff they can help you make it happen.Support and encourage early reporting of any issues which can lead to negativity and possible ill health, promote a culture of open communication and superior interpersonal skills.Encourage flexible thinking, flexible behaviors and resilience, as these traits have the greatest influence and best outcome.Offer policies and opportunities that stimulate the continued learning and development of all employees.Have to change with change, not be stubborn and insist living in what has been in the past, move with the times, otherwise the building blocks of growth will flatten and fail.*Encourage employees to use initiate and promote new ideas. They should know and feel that they are a part of the corporate system and be shown clearly where they fit into the corporate jigsaw.The corporate management of today have a duty to orientate and train all employees on how to continually challenge and improve the quality of their working life by; arousing their interest, motivation and thirst for development. This learning thus improves business excellence; in what is now, the exciting, fast paced and challenging world we are living in today.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to highlight the stressors and possible ill health consequences of today's workplace due to the speed and change of technology and the information overload that now exists in the corporate world. It also aims to present ideas and business strategies for managers and leaders and encourage the implementation of staff training, accountability and consolidation to minimize the stressors thus influencing a positive work culture.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper is based on a \"hands on\" learning approach. As a corporate trainer in communication and stress over the last decade I have seen significant changes in the workplace which have had a direct effect on employee health and wellbeing. The \"faster\" the workplace the more essential it is to inspirational leadership with emotional intelligence and an empathy and understanding of the development needs of their staff. As a direct result of work done with a number of clients, it is recognized that with effective training and personal growth, leaders should create a climate for vision building empowering others and themselves to reach their optimum potential.\nFindings: - Effective communication and development training, coaching, mentoring, leading and inspiring employees to work positively have a dramatic and positive effect on work culture. This in turn improves staff moral, health and wellbeing and as a result bottom line figures.\nOriginality/value: - This paper highlights the pace of change in today's workplace and the consequences of this. By introducing the appropriate corporate training and business strategies this, sometimes stressful environment, can be a positive and stimulating place to work for business excellence.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Connecting HRM and change management: the importance of proactivity and vitality	[ "Quantitative", "Change management", "Structural equation modeling", "Human resources management", "Job proactivity", "Vitality" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Organizations are continuously under pressure to adapt to changing circumstances, such as changing client wishes, new policy developments and the introduction of social media (Josserand et al., 2006). Swift adaptation to changing conditions has always been considered crucial for the survival of private-sector organizations (Tushman and O'Reilly, 2013). However, nowadays a critical public opinion and shrinking budgets pose threats to the survival of public organizations as well, which requires them to change rapidly and profoundly (Kuipers et al., 2014; Van der Voet et al., 2014).\nTheoretical framework: The importance of active employee outcomes for organizational change\nMethod: Procedure and participants\nResults: The measurement model provided a good fit to the data (CFI=0.94, TLI=0.93, RMSEA=0.04).\nDiscussion: Organizations, in the private sector but also increasingly in the public sector, are faced with rapidly changing conditions including budget cuts, altered client demands and changing demographics (By and Macleod, 2009; Kuipers et al., 2014). In order to cope with those changing conditions, organizations require their employees to be ready for organizational change. This study was innovative in two ways. First, we focussed on the effects of HPWPs on active employee outcomes in order to enhance readiness for organizational change, thereby connecting HRM with change management. Second, we analyzed perceived HPWPs instead of intended or actual HRM practices given that perceived HPWPs are often directly linked to performance.\nAcknowledgments: The data were collected as part of IZZ VitaliteitvoordeZorg, which is funded by Stichting IZZ. Stichting IZZ is a non-profit organization active in healthcare, organizing among else healthcare insurance for Dutch healthcare employees. The authors did not receive any funding for writing this paper.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Organizations are continuously under pressure to adapt to changing circumstances. Job proactivity and vitality are important in changing environments. For instance, vital employees can better deal with change because they possess more energy. However, it is still unclear how organizations can stimulate proactivity and vitality. The purpose of this paper is to connect HRM and change management by analyzing how HRM practices can stimulate job proactivity and vitality.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors used survey data collected in three large public healthcare organizations in the Netherlands (n=1,507) to investigate the effects of five important HRM practices on proactivity and vitality. Analyses were performed using structural equation modeling.\nFindings: Results suggest that three HRM practices are particularly effective for improving proactivity and vitality: high autonomy, high participation in decision making and high quality teamwork. Based on these results, the authors discuss the possibilities of using HRM to improve employees' abilities to deal with organizational change.\nOriginality/value: This study is one of the first to empirically connect HRM to change management. Furthermore, it uses new concepts derived from positive psychology (job proactivity and vitality) to show how HRM can be beneficial for organizational change.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Postcolonial hybridity, diaspora and accountancy: Evidence from Sierra Leonean chartered and aspiring accountants	[ "Diaspora", "Sierra Leone", "Hybridity", "Accounting professionalization", "Postcolonial theory" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Since the 1990s, an insightful stream of research has emerged on the influences of colonialism and imperialism on accounting professionalisation trajectories in former British colonies (Annisette, 2000; Uche, 2007; Bakre, 2006; Sian, 2006; Poullaos and Uche, 2012). These studies show how the colonial and imperial encounter engendered the development of professional associations in former colonies as an extension of those of the former coloniser (Wallace, 1992), how colonial and imperial links between local professional associations and global (especially British based) bodies tend to subvert the nationalist goal of the local profession (Annisette, 1999) and how such links have rendered localisation of accountancy as failed projects (Bakre, 2006; Mihret et al., 2012). Such studies have contributed greatly to our understanding of the influences of colonial and imperial legacies on the accounting professionalisation trajectories in ex-colonies. While these studies implicitly appreciate postcolonial theoretical analyses (Alawattage and Fernando, 2017), including recognition of the agency of local accountants and their institutions in the professionalisation process (Annisette, 2010) and mimicry of colonial professional projects (Poullaos and Uche, 2012), colonial continuity within ex-colonies' accountancy spaces remains relatively underexplored from a postcolonial theory perspective (Alawattage and Fernando, 2017). Furthermore, the extant literature takes, primarily, an institutional focus, focussing on professional structures and associated regulatory mechanisms. While the formalised profession provides an overarching institutional frame for the practice of accountancy, such an institutional focus overlooks the accountant as an individual actor within the professional accountancy domain. If the profession is viewed as constituting a grouping of individuals with certain shared features such as, for example, shared purposes, education, work and responsibilities, then the views of how the accountants impact, and are impacted by, their professional status, activities and engagement can add to our understanding of professionalisation trajectories in ex-colonies.\n2. Theoretical framework: Postcolonial theory is rooted in the \"historical fact\" of colonialism and imperialism (Ashcroft et al., 2003; Said, 2003). Yet, postcolonial theory deviates from classical conceptions of colonialism and imperialism by critically evaluating and theorising the complex web of processes by means of which both notions were utilised to produce the subjectivities of the colonisers and the colonised (Nandy, 1983; Bhabha, 1994). Although it is generally accepted that colonialism (marked by annexation and subjugation of colonised societies) largely ended with the post-Second World War dismantling of Europe's colonial empires (Gallagher and Robinson, 1953), imperial hegemony persists in ex-colonies (Said, 1994; Prasad, 2003). Thus, \"the post\" in postcolonial, should be understood as \"the post of the space-clearing gesture. It is not a 'post' that is concerned with transcending - with going beyond - coloniality\"[3] (Appiah, 1991, p. 348; emphasis in original). As such, postcolonial theory is located within the wider context of the overlapping ensemble and expansion of colonial and imperial empires from the time of first encounter to the present day (Ashcroft et al., 2003; Loomba, 2005). Postcolonial theory represents a range of concepts that seek to address \"generative relations between different peoples and cultures\" (Young, 2003, p. 7). Of particular importance for this paper are the postcolonial concepts of hybridity and diaspora, to which we now turn.\n3. Professionalisation, colonialism and post-colonialism: 3.1 Overview\n4. Method: Face-to-face and telephone semi-structured interviews were conducted between December 2014 and March 2015. Interviews were used as the objective was to elicit rich and deep data, at the level of meaning, feeling and value, relating to how the participants think about and construct the reality of their world, in this case accountancy in Sierra Leone. An interview approach also provides explanatory insights relating to uncertainty surrounding the extent to which the participants actually know about, and how they conceptualise, their world (Riley et al., 2000, p. 129). Given the focus on perceptions of Sierra Leonean chartered and aspiring accountants, purposive non-probability sampling was employed to identify and recruit participants, complemented by snowball sampling where interviewees recommended other appropriate potential participants. In total, 18 interviews were conducted comprising 10 chartered and 8 aspiring accountants. All aspiring accountants interviewed were at an advanced stage of their professional qualification. Three were ACCA exam qualified and were in the process of undertaking relevant practical experience for full chartered status. The other five had at most two professional exams to complete, two of whom had already completed their practical experience requirement. A summary of interviewees' profiles is attached at Table AI.\n5. Analysis: postcolonial hybridity and accountancy: 5.1 Accountancy as postcolonial third space of hybridity\n6. Analysis: postcolonial diaspora and accountancy: 6.1 Accounting professionalisation and the diaspora effect\n7. Discussion and conclusion: This paper has employed the critical lens of postcolonial theory, in particular the notions of hybridity and diaspora, to explore how Sierra Leonean chartered and aspiring accountants perceive their professional identity. This included consideration of how they are shaped by their professional experiences, the challenges and tensions they face and how their lived experiences shape, via professional qualification, and constantly reshape, via their subsequent professional lives, their identities both within and outside of Sierra Leone. In a postcolonial theoretical sense, hybrid identity emerges from interactions and exchanges between two systems or cultures where one is perceived as superior and therefore tends to dominate, while the other is perceived as inferior and therefore tends to be dominated. The prevalence of such hegemonic power-knowledge relations within the postcolonial third space induces the perceived inferior to mimic the perceived superior as a form of resistance. However, such mimicry produces a new cultural identity - the postcolonial hybrid - that poses as the same (though not quite) (Bhabha, 1994).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore perceptions and lived experiences of Sierra Leonean chartered and aspiring accountants, vis-a-vis their professional identity with a particular focus on two elements of postcolonial theory, hybridity and diaspora.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative methodological framework was employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 participants about their perceptions of their professional identity and their professional experiences both within and outside Sierra Leone.\nFindings: The current professionalisation process is conceptualised as a postcolonial third space where hybrid professional accountants are constructed. Professional hybridity blurs the local/global praxis being positioned as both local and global accountants. Participants experience difficulty \"fitting into\" the local accountancy context as a consequence of their hybridisation. As such, a diaspora effect is induced which often culminates in emigration to advanced countries. The paper concludes that although the current model engenders emancipatory social movements for individuals through hybridity and diaspora, it is nonetheless counterproductive for Sierra Leone's economic development and the local profession in particular.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study has significant implications for understanding how the intervention of global professional bodies in developing countries shapes the professionalisation process as well as perceptions and lived experiences of chartered and aspiring accountants in these countries.\nOriginality/value: While extant literature implicates the legacies of colonialism/imperialism on the institutional development of accountancy (represented by recognised professional bodies), this paper employs the critical lens of postcolonial theory to conceptualise the lived experiences of individuals who are directly impacted by such institutional arrangements.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]

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